THE 


AMERICAN    STATE 


AND 


AMERICA-N    STATESMEN. 


BY 


WILLIAM    GILES    DIX. 


BOSTON: 
ESTES     AND     LAURIAT. 

187-6. 


Copyright,  1875. 
By  WILLIAM    GILES    DIX. 


University  Press  :  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co., 
Cambridcu. 


PREFACE, 


As  the  festivals  of  the  Church  are  preceded  by  retreats, 
in  order  that  humihation  may  open  the  door  of  joy,  so  is  it 
wise  that  patriotic  reflection  should  go  before  and  even  go 
under  patriotic  jubilees.  Has  our  country  been  faithful  to 
her  origin,  her  duty,  and  her  destiny  ?  Have  we  been  faith- 
ful to  our  country  ?  That  patriotism  alone  is  real  which 
truly  tries  to  ask  and  answer  these  questions.  He  is  most 
a  patriot,  as  he  is  most  a  Christian,  whose  soul  kneels  in 
penitence  before  she  soars  in  exultation. 

Now,  when  the  full  arch  of  a  hundred  years  spans  or 
soon  will  span  the  chief  events  of  our  early  history  as  com- 
monly received,  and  their  recent  or  coming  commemoration, 
it  is  not  the  spirit  or  desire  of  discord  which  entreats  that 
some  tones  of  warning  may  be  heard  and  heeded,  before 
resounds  the  universal  and  triumphant  music  of  congratu- 
lation. 

Are  we  sure  that  we  have  reached  the  very  summit  of  po- 
litical wisdom  in  our  structure  of  government  ?  This  ground 
is  constantly  assumed.  Is  it  rightly  assumed  ?  Have  we 
long  since  passed  the  point  where  it  was  our  plain  duty  to 
learn  ;  and  has  it  long  since  become  our  plain  prerogative 
to  teach  ?  I  affirm,  and  claim  to  be  no  less  true  to  America 
for  so  affirming,  that,  as  regards  the  principles  of  civil  gov- 


ly  PREFACE. 

ernment,  we  have  quite  as  much  to  learn  as  to  teach ;  and 
that,  as  regards  the  sure,  ready,  simple,  effective,  and  just 
application  of  the  principles  of  civil  government,  we  have 
far  more  to  learn  than  to  teach. 

This  ground  may  be  wounding  to  our  national  pride,  but 
is  that  alone  to  be  considered  ?  Is  it  not  better  that  our 
national  pride  should  be  wounded  by  the  healing  probe, 
than  that  our  national  honor,  welfare,  and  glory  should  be 
wounded  unto  death  by  demagogues  and  destructives,  whose 
only  principle  of  government  is  a  majority  of  votes,  and 
whose  only  political  policy  is  the  determination  to  live  and 
thrive  at  the  expense  of  the  government,  and  without  regard 
to  expense  ? 

Have  we,  as  Americans,  duly  considered  the  principles  of 
government?  Have  we  even  admitted  that  there  are  any 
such  principles  ?  Has  it  not  rather  been  our  boast,  that 
there  are  no  principles  of  government  beyond  the  will  of  the 
people,  the  platforms  of  political  conventions,  and  the  laws 
of  the  States  or  of  Congress  ?  Even  the  Constitution  is  re- 
garded more  frequently  as  a  practical  rule  of  procedure 
than  as  an  exponent  of  organic  law.  It  will  be  hard  to  find 
in  the  language  of  American  politicians  a  single  word  ac- 
knowledging that  principles  of  civil  order  are  inexorable  and 
universal  laws,  as  independent  of  popular  sovereignty  as  the 
light  and  motion  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars. 

Yet  principles  of  government  will  claim  recognition  soon- 
er or  later'.  They  cannot  be  discarded  forever.  So  long 
rejected  as  intruders  in  American  history,  they  will  yet  be 
hailed,  honored,  and  followed  as  guides.  Look  at  that 
grand  old  word  Loyalty.  For  a  hundred  years  that  word 
had  been  scouted  and  scorned  in  America,  driven  in  igno- 


PREFACE.  V 

minious  exile  from  the  hearts  and  lips  of  men,  pelted  with 
stones,  and  daubed  with  mire  ;  yet,  when  the  national  life 
was  in  peril,  the  rejected  exile  was  sought  out,  —  like  some 
noble  hero  of  Greece  or  Rome,  banished  in  the  hour  of  pub- 
lic pride,  but  recalled  in  the  hour  of  public  danger,  —  was 
summoned  to  the  front  of  war,  and,  with  unwavering  march 
and  with  inspiring  eye  and  voice,  led  our  armies  to  victory 
and  peace. 

Have  we  not  been  trying  to  get  along,  somehow  for  nearly 
a  hundred  years  without  any  principles  of  government  ?  Is 
our  government,  or  what  we  call  a  government  by  conceit, 
as  foreign  nations  call  it  a  government  by  courtesy,  anything 
more,  have  we  ever  tried  to  make  it  anything  more,  has 
it  not  been  our  special  American  pride  that  it  is  nothing 
more,  than  an  ingenious  balance  and  compromise  of  poli- 
cies ?  Can  we  be  said,  for  instance,  to  recognize  such  a 
principle  as  national  law,  when  what  is  law  in  one  part  of 
the  country  is  directly  contrary  to  law  in  another  part  of  the 
country  ;  that  is,  when  a  man  in  one  State  may  be  a  good 
and  true  citizen,  doing  as  he  does,  and,  having  gone  to  an- 
other State,  the  same  man,  for  doing  the  same  things  in  the 
same  way,  may  be,  if  not  a  felon,  at  least  a  disturber  of  the 
peace  and  a  law-breaker? 

Are  we  wise  in  claiming  for  what  we  call  our  system  of 
government  the  right  of  being  the  American  dispensation 
of  civil  rule,  to  be  in  due  time  adopted  by  all  the  world, 
though,  wherever  and  whenever  the  characteristic  marks  of 
our  civil  polity,  in  which  we  take  pride,  have  been  imitated, 
the  result  has  been,  in  every  instance,  without  a  single  ex- 
ception, in  either  hemisphere,  a  thorough,  dismal,  and  dis- 
astrous failure  ?     Can  principles,  immutable  and  universal 


VI  PREFACE. 

principles,  —  and  principles  cannot  be  principles,  unless  im- 
mutable and  universal,  —  can  they  possibly  be  of  such  lim- 
ited, if  not  transient  application  ?  Look  at  every  inch  of 
independent  Spanish  America  !  Look  at  the  recent  history 
<of  Spain  herself  !  Look  at  the  Reign  of  Terror  in  Paris 
during  the  French  Revolution  !  Look  at  the  Reign  of  Hell 
in  Paris  under  French  Communism  !  Look  at  France  even 
now  entangled,  bewildering  and  bewildered,  in  the  meshes 
of  the  American  example !  May  God  give  her  a  good  and 
sure  deliverance  ! 

No  nation  in  the  world  has  shown  more  elastic  power  in 
springing  triumphant  out  of  misfortunes  than  France.  I 
cannot  speak  of  her  without  gratitude  and  affection,  without 
hopes  of  her  glory  in  the  future  as  warm  as  admiration  of 
her  glory  in  the  past.  I'hough,  in  the  history  of  France, 
some  of  the  outworks  of  her  power  have  been  captured  ; 
though  she  has  sometimes  suffered  terribly  from  foreign 
foes,  and  yet  more  from  foes  alike  internal  and  infernal ; 
yet  that  noble  citadel,  the  consecrated  soul  of  France,  has 
never  been  conquered  :  it  is  unconquerable,  and  long  may 
it  be  unconquered  and  unconquerable  ! 

The  period  of  triumphant  Communism  in  Paris,  when 
"  firebrands,  arrows,  and  death  "  were  scattered  by  the  advo- 
cates of  personal  liberty  to  the  utmost,  when  popular  sover- 
eignty culminated  in  blazing  ruins,  in  the  devastation  of  all 
things  human,  in  the  desecration  of  all  things  divine,  and  in 
the  fierce  and  fiend-like  murder  of  anointed  servants  of  God, 
— the  terrible  catastrophe  seems  to  have  proceeded  from  what 
one  might  beforehand  have  regarded  as  the  very  innocent 
experiment  of  aiming  to  plant  the  New  England  town-meet- 
ing on  French  soil. 


PREFACE.  VU 

T|he  result  proves  that  the  town-meetuig,  however  wise 
and  judicious  it  may  be  among  us,  springs  from  a  poHcy, 
not  a  principle  of  government,  —  and  a  poHcy  not  every- 
where essential  to  human  happiness  and  public  peace  ;  and, 
ascending  from  the  town-meeting  to  national  affairs,  we  shall 
be  compelled  to  admit  that,  while  it  is  a  most  happy  cir- 
cumstance when  order  and  law  are  recognized  by  the  ma- 
jority of  votes,  it  is  false  logic  and  false  patriotism  to  hold 
that  order  and  law  have  no  other  source  or  right  than  the 
majority  of  votes.  Many  a  true  and  earnest  patriot,  who 
has  no  scruple  in  saying  that  the  voice  of  the  people  is  the 
voice  of  God,  because  he  makes  the  reasonable  limitation  of 
his  words,  would  be  startled  into  a  manly  denial  if  told  to 
affirm  the  logical  result  of  that  maxim  as  frequently  inter- 
preted, that  there  is  no  God  but  man. 

The  general  material  prosperity  of  America  —  and  noth- 
ing but  material  prosperity  has  ever  been  dreamed  of  as  a 
possible  object  of  national  ambition,  either  by  the  Ameri- 
can government  or  by  the  American  people  —  has  been 
owing  to  the  unconquerable  and  myriad-handed  energy  of 
the  American  people,  and  not  to  the  form  or  administration 
of  the  American  government.  That  energy  would  have 
been  irrepressible  under  any  government ;  and  under  some 
civil  conditions  that  have  been  wanting,  it  would  have  been 
far  more  effective,  and  would  have  produced  far  better  and 
more  enduring  results,  a  more  ardent  nationality  of  feeling, 
a  deeper,  higher,  nobler  civilization. 

Whatever  may  be  just  and  wise  in  our  system  of  govern- 
ment is  so,  not  because  it  is  American,  but  because  it  is  in 
harmony  with  eternal  justice  and  wisdom,  with  what  were 
justice  and  wisdom  before  America  was  discovered,  with 


VIU  PREFACE. 

what  existed  as  justice  and  wisdom  in  the  Infinite  Mind 
before  the  worlds  were  made.  To  search  for  a  new  prin- 
ciple of  government  is  to  search  for  the  philosopher's  stone, 
which  has  never  been  found  and  never  will  be.  I  defy  any 
man  to  point  out  a  single  principle,  so  called,  in  our  govern- 
ment, which  has  not  been  tried  before,  in  the  spirit  or  in  the 
letter,  sometimes  with  failure,  sometimes  with  success.  Is 
Federalism  an  American  idea?  Federalism,  or  its  equiva- 
lent, was  the  curse  of  the  German  Empire  for  a  thousand 
years,  that  is,  during  every  minute  of  its  existence,  from 
Charlemagne  to  Francis  the  Second.  The  new  German 
Empire  will  be  of  very  little  use  to  itself  or  to  the  rest  of 
the  world,  and  may  as  well  go  back  into  its  original  chaos, 
unless  it  shall  become  a  national,  not  a  federal  Germany. 

We  cannot  better  improve  the  centennial  memories  of 
this  year  and  of  the  few  coming  years  than  by  a  thorough 
and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  a  successful  endeavor  to  eradicate 
the  notion,  so  prevalent  and  so  pernicious,  that  our  form  of 
government  is  a  kind  of  political  gospel,  a  civil  revelation 
for  the  ultimate  good  of  all  mankind.  This  leads  me  to 
consider  the  most  praiseworthy  feature  of  the  proposed  cen- 
tennial celebration  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, —  I 
mean  its  international  character.  Let  us  look  upon  our- 
selves as  being  one  of  the  great  family  of  nations,  and  not 
as  a  nation,  isolated  by  national  pride,  and  judging  all  men 
and  all  countries  by  our  own  infallible  and  superior  wisdom. 
The  true,  historic  meaning  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence is  national  to  the  utmost  limit  of  a  wise  and  manly 
national  pride,  and  also  international  to  the  utmost  limit  of 
reciprocal  honor,  welfare,  and  aid.  The  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence is  very  far  from  being  adequately  remembered 


PREFACE.  IX 

or  honored  by  pompous  platitudes  about  the  rights  of  man, 
without  regard  to  the  duties  of  man.  The  closing  century 
since  the  Declaration  has  been  noted  for  a  vigorous  and 
persistent  affirmation  of  the  rights  of  man.^  To  strike  the 
just  balance  of  American  history,  I  venture  most  respect- 
fully to  suggest  to  my  countrymen,  that  the  next  century 
shall  be  marked  by  equal  devotion  to  the  duties  of  man, 
as  important  as  his  rights,  and  equally  "  unalienable  "  and 
"endowed  by"  his  "Creator." 

While  the  national  heart  derives,  as  it  ought,  new  fervor 
from  the  inspirations  of  the  day,  from  its  memories,  associa- 
tions, and  consequences,  momentous  and  glorious  as  they 
are,  let  the  thought  grow  deeper  and  wider  that  our  coun- 
try, as  one  of  the  nations  of  the  earth,  has  not  only  national 
but  international  rights  and  duties. 

I  make  no  apology  for  speaking  as  I  have  done  in  this 
Preface,  for  speaking  as  I  do  in  the  following  pages,  or  for 
whatever  I  may  say  at  any  time  in  respect  to  our  principles 
and  policies  of  government.  I  believe  it  to  be  neither  noble 
nor  courageous  to  hide  behind  our  intrenchments  of  popu- 
lar sovereignty,  and  like  Chinese  soldiers,  with  their  fiercely 
painted  banners  and  thundering  gongs,  to  defy  and  de- 
nounce the  rest  of  the  world  as  political  gentiles,  to  jeer  at 
the  wisdom  of  ages  as  folly,  to  laugh  at  chivalric  loyalty  as 
a  childish  whim  of  the  past,  to  regard  government  as  noth- 
ing but  a  dry  "  social  compact,"  and,  consequently,  patriot- 
ism itself  as  a  cold  deduction  of  political  economy,  not  as  a 
warm  and  genial  inspiration  of  the  heart. 

My  object  will  be  mainly  fulfilled  if  I  can  convince  my 
countr^Mnen  that  even  in  the  science  and  administration  of 
government,  vv'hich  every  moderator  of  an  American  town- 


X  PREFACE. 

meeting  is  supposed  thoroughly  to  comprehend,  there  may 
possibly  be  something  which  an  American  may  learn  ;  or, 
if  that  is  too  strong  an  expression,  something  which  he  may 
consider  anew,  in  order  to  refresh  his  memory. 

I  have  an  unbounded  faith  in  the  fearless  energy  and  di- 
rectness of  the  American  mind  ;  and  when  that  mind  shall 
once  be  set  fairly  to  thinking  on  the  organic  principles  of 
civil  order,  the  results  will  do  more  than  any  proud  preten- 
sions about  "the  best  government  which  the  world  ever  saw" 
to  turn  the  ardent  dreams  of  the  patriot  and  the  poet  of  the 
present  about  the  greatness  and  glory  of  America  into  the 
sober  records  of  the  future  historian. 

Our  provisional  government  has  lasted  nearly  a  hundred 
years,  longer  than  any  provisional  government  ever  did 
before.  A  provisional  government,  as  times  and  as  men 
were,  was  alone  possible  when  ours  was  formed  ;  and  it  was 
the  utmost  reach  of  the  most  sincere  and  ardent  patriotism, 
contending  with  nearly  unconquerable  prejudice  and  alarm  • 
yet  it  was  a  provisional  government  only,  and  yearly  proves 
to  be  more  and  more  unsuited  to  the  vast  and  growing  em- 
pire of  North  America.  I  call  it  a  provisional  government, 
because  its  organic  powers  have  been  the  subject  of  contra- 
dictory interpretations  from  its  beginning  to  this  very  hoiir. 
Of  no  other  government  on  the  face  of  the  earth  can  the 
same  thing  be  said.  Is  not  the  time  drawing  near  when  we 
ought,  at  least,  to  consider  how  best  to  secure  a  proper 
national  government,  designed  to  be,  and  of  a  nature  to  be, 
enduring  and  glorious  ? 

The  spirit  of  conciliation  shown  on  the  17th  of  June, 
while  for  its  unexpected  fervor  on  both  sides  a  great  and 
inspiring  surprise,  was  and  is  the  most  hopeful  sign  of  the 


PREFACE.  XI 

times.  I  wish  to  make  no  discord  with  that  exultant  music 
of  earnest  hearts  and  voices  by  saying  that  patriotic  emo- 
tion, wiiile  a  priceless  treasure,  cannot  take  the  place  of  or- 
ganic law  in  upholding  national  authority  and  power,  or  the 
prosperity  and  liberty  of  the  people.  I  hear  frequently  the 
appeal  to  a  restoration  of  good  feeling  between  the  North 
and  the  South.  Now,  while  I  have  the  most  intense  and 
hearty  sympathy  with  the  sentiment  that  inspires  such  words, 
I  beg  leave  to  say,  or  rather  I  will  say  it  without  leave,  that 
the  7-estoration  of  such  feeling  between  the  North  and  the 
South  as  existed  before  the  war  is  not  in  any  way  desirable, 
for  this  plain  reason  plainly  given,  that  there  never  was  any 
good  feeling  between  the  North  and  the  South  from  the  for- 
mation of  the  Federal  Constitution  to  the  year  1861.  The 
existence  of  slavery  made  the  union  of  hearts  between  the 
North  and  the  South  impossible,  notwithstanding  the  politi- 
cal union.  The  Federal  organization,  if  anything  can  be 
so  called  which  lacks  the  first  principles  of  organization,  by 
retaining  and  protecting  slavery,  kept  up  the  jealousy  which 
the  dangers  and  hopes  of  the  Revolution  kept  down. 

Our  country  needs  not  restoration,  but  advance.  There  is 
now  no  reason  in  the  wide  world  why  the  North  and  the 
South  should  not  be  united  as  they  never  were  before,  as 
they  could  not  be  while  the  North  was  trying  to  destroy  and 
the  South  was  trying  to  keep  and  extend  slavery.  Slavery 
has  gone  to  its  eternal  grave,  "  unwept,  unhonored,  and 
unsung."  One  barrier  only  remains  against  complete,  ear- 
nest, and  patriotic  sympathy  between  the  North,  the  South, 
the  East,  and  the  West,  and  that  is  State  sovereignty.  To 
break  down  that  only  wall  of  separation  between  hearts  and 
wills  and  hands  will  require  the  same  loyalty  and  self-devo- 


Xn  PREFACE. 

tion  from  the  North,  the  East,  and  the  AVest,  as  from  the 
South,  for  the  same  great  and  holy  aim,  the  growth  and 
perpetuity  of  a  powerful  and  beneficent  dominion,  the  home 
of  millions  of  happy  and  united  patriots,  of  whom  each  shall 
be  free  and  all  shall  be  strong.  While  State  sovereignty 
remains,  civil  war  is  at  any  moment  possible,  notwithstand- 
ing the  noble,  sincere,  and  exalted  enthusiasm  of  the  17th  of 
June. 

I  look  forward  to  a  fervency  of  patriotic  devotion  in  the 
hearts  of  all  our  people,  in  every  part  of  our  land,  such  as 
our  country  never  knew,  such  as  no  country  ever  knew, 
when  we  shall  be  literally  and  truly  one  country ;  when  our 
people,  escaping  with  eager  feet  from  the  dangerous  quick- 
sands of  the  Federal  Union,  shall  stand,  and  shall  rejoice 
in  standing,  on  the  safe  and  solid  ground  of  national  unity. 
God  speed  the  day,  and  make  it  and  keep  it  glorious  forever! 

Since  writing  the  above,  I  have  seen  with  great  pleasure 
in  the  Boston  "Journal"  some  remarks  quoted  from  the 
Sumter  (S.  C.)  "Watchman."     I  cite  one  sentence:  — 

"  There  can  now  no  longer  be  either  a  Northern  or  a 
Southern  patriotism,  separate  and  distinct  from  the  other 
(except  it  be  the  distinctive  misnomer  of  continued  sec- 
tional animosit}^),  and  there  must  therefore  spring  up  a 
national  patriotism,  —  a  pride  of  American  name,  and  the 
common  legacy  of  a  renowned  ancestry." 

These  are  to  my  mind  the  most  inspiring,  hopeful,  and 
significant  words  which  the  celebration  of  the  17th  of  June 
has  called  forth.  There  is  no  "  restoration  "  here,  but  the 
prophecy  of  a  new  and  generous  feeling  to  come,  born  of  the 
past,  but  not  restoring  or  resembling  the  past.  "  National 
PATRIOTISM,"  —  that  is  the  one  thing  needful.     As  a  son  of 


PREFACE.  XlU 

Massachusetts,.  I  hail  with  unbounded  joy  these  watch- 
words of  the  future  from  South  Carolina  ;  and  I  eagerly 
hope  and  truly  believe  that  the  time  will  come  when  the 
names  Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina,  illustrious  as 
they  are,  will  be  honored  mainly  as  giving  new  fervor,  new 
power,  new  inspiration,  and  a  perpetual  lease  of  patriotic 
pride  to  the  all-pervading,  all-uniting  name  America. 

Our  civil  war  was  not  an  anomaly  or  a  miracle,  but  a 
direct  result  of  our  plan  of  rule.  The  war  was  in  the 
straight  road  of  the  federal  "  experiment "  ;  and  the  won- 
der is,  not  that  it  occurred,  but  that  it  was  delayed  so 
long.  Nationality  and  Federalism  are  natural  and  eter- 
nal enemies.  They  cannot  live  together  in  peace.  One 
or  the  other  must  conquer  or  die.  During  the  war,  the 
weakness  came  from  the  cumbersome,  creaking,  disjointed 
federal  machinery.  The  strength  came  from  the  unity  of 
the  people,  bearing  or  bringing  arms.  The  government 
itself  had  very  little  strength  beyond  the  personal  inspira- 
tion of  Abraham  Lincoln  ;  and  it  is  not  an  abstract  ques- 
tion, but  a  very  practical  one,  whether  we  ought  not  to 
have  a  government  which  can  strengthen  and  defend  the 
people  by  its  inherent  vigor,  without  depending  on  the 
personal  inspiration  of  any  ruler,  however  good,  wise,  or 
patriotic,  and  without  being  at  the  mercy  of  a  feeble  or 
corrupt  administrator. 

The  closing  months  of  the  Presidency  of  James  Bu- 
chanan proved  how  dangerous  is  a  weak  man  at  the  head 
of  a  weak  government.  In  an  avalanche  of  perils,  he  is 
the  chief  peril.  A  strong  man,  like  Andrew  Jackson,  in 
the  same  emergency,  would  have  supplied  from  his  own 
defiant  energy   the    strength   which   the   government   alike 


XIV  PREFACE. 

lacked  and  needed.  Weak  governments  are  far  more 
likely  than  strong  ones  to  be  tracked  through  history  by 
blood  and  tears.  We  hear  much  declamation  against 
"  personal  government,"  but  where,  in  the  civilized  world, 
is  there  another  government  in  which  such  momentous  in- 
terests are  staked  on  the  personal  strength  or  weakness, 
or  on  the  personal  uprightness  or  dishonor,  of  the  ruler, 
as  in  the  United  States  of  America  ?  A  government 
organically  strong  curbs  ambitious  rulers,  or  gives  the 
needed  lash  to  rulers  .  cowardly,  indolent,  or  weak.  If 
"  personal  government "  is  something  to  be  avoided  as  a 
political  calamity,  then  let  us  have  a  government  the 
strength  of  which  shall  be  in  its  organic  might,  not  in  a 
forced  construction  of  its  powers,  or  in  the  accidental  en- 
ergy of  its  ministers.  I  know  of  no  instance  in  history 
where  any  people  have  proved  so  slow  to  learn  the  mean- 
ing of  events,  as  the  American  people  have  been  to  see 
the  plain  teaching  of  their  terrible  war.  St.  John,  de- 
scribing the  horrors  of  a  burning  star,  says  "  the  name  of 
the  star  is  called  Wormwood."  There  is  also  a  blazing, 
bitter  star,  that  has  fallen  on  our  American  waters  and 
mountains,  on  ripening  fields  and  happy  homes,  spread- 
ing lurid,  blasting  terrors,  like  sparks  from  the  furnace  of 
perdition,  and  the  name  of  the  star  is  called  Federalism. 
May  that  malignant  star  soon  fade  from  view  before  the 
bright  and  genial  "  Star  of  Empire." 

W.  G.  DIX. 
Peaeody,  Mass.,  September  i,  1S75. 


CONTENTS. 


-♦- 


CHAPTER    I. 

Page 

Charles  Sumner i 


CHAPTER    II. 
Senators  and  States 12 

CHAPTER    III. 
The  British  Parliament 37 

CHAPTER    IV. 
The  American  Congress 42 

CHAPTER    V. 
Christianity  the  Inspirer  of  Nations 58 

CHAPTER    VI. 
Materialism  the  Curse  of  America 75 

CHAPTER    VII. 
America  a  Christian  Tower 84 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
Abraham  Lincoln 97 

CHAPTER    IX. 
Origin  of  the  Empire  of  North  America     ....    io8 

CHAPTER    X. 

National   Unity  the   Source,  not  the   Delegate,  of  Au- 
thority      122 

CHAPTER    XI. 
National  Sovereignty I44 

CHAPTER    XII. 
Are  the  United  States  a  Nation  ? IS5  ^ 


The  American  State. 


CHAPTER   I. 


CHARLES     SUMNER, 


When  the  standard-bearer  of  a  great  principle  falls 
at  his  post  of  honor  and  duty,  it  is  a  sad  but  also  a  sub- 
lime sight.  Wider  than  the  shadow  of  grief  spreads 
the  sunlight  of  his  heroic  example.  Death  may  still 
the  beating  heart  of  the  defender  of  justice,  but  it  is 
to  make  it  throb  stronger  and  longer  in  the  annals  of 
time.  Death,  while  sealing  the  lips  of  the  pleader  for 
right,  breathes  his  undying  words  into  all  the  winds 
of  heaven.  Death  gives  to  the  hero's  body  a  narrow 
dominion,  but  he  puts  into  the  hand  of  the  hero's  soul 
a  sceptre  of  power  which  God  only  can  limit. 

America  is  darkened  by  Mr.  Sumner's  deathj  but  it 
is  brightened  by  the  historic  and  chivalric  splendor  of 
his  life.  In  writing  these  pages  I  have  been  cheered 
by  the  hope  that  my  views  of  senatorial  responsibility 
would  win  Mr.  Sumner's  approval.  My  convictions  on 
some  points  are  widely  at  variance  with  those  which 
Mr.  Sumner  held  ;  yet  I  hoped  that  he  would  concur 
with  my  belief  that  our  senators  are,  or  ought  to  be, 

I  A 


2  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

national  senators,  with  a  national  responsibility,  —  not 
geographical  senators,  with  a  geographical  responsi- 
bility ;  that  it  is  the  right  .and  the  duty  of  a  senator 
to  act  as  he  may  think  best  for  his  whole  country,  with- 
out having  to  turn  round,  when  he  speaks  or  votes,  to 
catch  the  wink  of  the  State  which  sent  him. 

I  have  not,  indeed,  sought  to  win  any  man's  approval 
or  to  avoid  any  man's  censure.  To  hope  to  win,  to 
hope  to  avoid,  is  very  different  from  trying  to  do  either. 
I  should  ill  apply  the  meaning  of  Mr.  Sumner's  life,  if, 
in  what  I  may  say  or  how  I  may  say  it,  I  should  have 
any  other  aims  than  to  speak  justly  and  plainly,  to 
praise  warmly  or,  in  need,  to  blame  severely,  humbly 
to  follow  clear  authority,  but  boldly  to  lead  opinion,  to 
speak  my  own  mind,  and  that  only,  whether  I  prove  to 
be  right  or  wrong,  freely  and  without  fear  of  man,  and 
to  do  either  or  all  of  these  in  the  light  of  reverence  for' 
the  God  of  light. 

I  have  waited  long  for  others  to  speak  the  needed 
words.  Nothing  remains  but  for  me  to  advance  boldly 
and  alone,  as  I  now  do,  and  stand,  praying  God  to  up- 
hold me,  and  calling  upon  my  countrymen  to  join  their 
voices  with  mine,  in  demanding  what  the  stability  of 
our  dominion  requires.  I  am  conservative  by  nature, 
by  my  habits  and  objects  of  thought  and  study,  and 
believe  that  the  highest  motive,  as  well  as  the  best  re- 
sult, of  reform  is  to  save.  I  know  that  I  am  right,  and 
by  the  aid  of  God  I  shall  hold  my  ground  and  shall 
do  my  work.     Arc  the  United  States  a  nation  ?     Have 


CHARLES    SUMNER.  3 

we  a  national  government  ?  I  commend  these  ques- 
tions to  the  most  earnest  consideration  of  my  country- 
men. 

Tlie  occasion  of  this  book  was  the  debate  in  the  Leg- 
islature of  Massachusetts  about  rescinding  the  vote  of 
censure  upon  Mr.  Sumner.  That  vote  of  censure,  hap- 
pily, has  been  rescinded,  but  for  such  reasons  as  have 
left  the  main  question  at  issue  undecided.  Accordingly 
I  leave  what  I  have  written  as  I  wrote  it.  I  rejoice  that 
this  act  of  justice  has  been  done  any  way,  though  some 
of  its  advocates  maintained  the  right  of  State  supervis- 
ion over  national  senators  while  deprecating  its  exercise 
in  the  given  case.  The  great  question,  then,  remains 
open.  On  one  account,  I  am  glad  that  the  discussion 
took  a  personal  direction,  for  whatever  personal  feeling 
may  have  seemed  to  dictate  the  original  censure  was 
thereby  either  denounced  or  rebuked  ;  and  it  is  a  deep 
satisfaction  to  kno-w  that  the  new  proof  of  the  loving 
esteem  of  Massachusetts  for  her  most  honored  son 
soothed  his  dying  hours.  The  great  principle,  how- 
ever, should  be  settled  once  for  all,  whether  senators 
are,  or  are  to  be,  national  senators,  or  State  agents  only. 
I  should  have  approved  and  desired  the  rescinding  of 
the  vote  of  censure,  even  if  I  believed  Mr.  Sumner's 
resolution  entirely  wrong.  On  this  last  point  my  mind 
has  not  been  made  up,  though  I  am  bound  frankly  to 
say  that,  the  more  I  think  of  it,  the  more  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  Mr.  Sumner  was  entirely  right. 

Mr.  Sumner  labored  to  make  the  Declaration  of  In- 


4  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

dependence  the  law  of  the  land.  In  that  he  did  well ; 
and  it  was  historical  justice  to  do  it.  Yet  for  ages  be- 
fore the  Declaration  of  Independence  stood  the  eternal 
law  of  God.  Before  the  rights  of  man  were  declared  in 
Philadelphia,  the  rights  of  man  and  the  duties  of  man 
were  proclaimed  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives.  I  honor 
and  revere  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  I  honor 
and  revere  its  signers.  I  cast  no  discredit  upon  the  doc- 
ument or  upon  the  men,  in  maintaining  that  the  author- 
ity of  God  is  stronger  than  any  declaration  of  man,  and 
gives  a  better  title  to  civil  rights.  The  Declaration  of 
Independence  derives  its  highest  and  deepest  sanction 
from  its  acknowledgment  that  the  rights  of  man,  for 
which  it  contends,  are  the  gifts  of  God.  The  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  but  the  mortal  hand  which 
struck  the  rock.  The  living  water  that  flowed  forth 
came  from  God's  fountain  of  immortal  right. 

Mr.  Sumner  may  not  have  been  a  great  statesman, 
if  one  refers  to  those  who  have  founded  or  conducted 
great  empires,  or  who  have  shown  the  power  to  do  so, 
—  the  number  of  great  statesmen,  in  that  sense,  is  very 
small,  taking  all  times  and  all  lands  together,  —  but  he 
was  a  true  statesman  ;  and  the  number  of  true  states- 
men, as  distinguished  from  politicians  or  counterfeit 
statesmen,  though  larger,  is  yet  small.  Of  great  con- 
structive statesmen  we  have  had  but  three  in  our  history 
who  were  deeply  engaged  in  public  affairs,  —  Alexander 
Hamilton,  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  Daniel  Webster. 
John  Marshall  belonged  to  that  order,  though  his  life 


CHARLES    SUMNER.  5 

was  mainly  given  to  the  law.  Alexander  Hamilton 
died  too  soon  for  his  country  and  his  fame,  but  not  too 
soon  to  prove  that  he  was  one  of  the  order  of  men  who 
found  powerful  and  permanent  dominions,  though  he 
had  no  opportunity  to  act  according  to  the  full  measure 
of  his  strength.  Daniel  Webster,  the  most  constructive 
genius  America  ever  had,  was  never  permitted  to  con- 
struct anything,  and  he  died  without  fulfilling  the  very 
object  for  which  apparently  he  was  born,  to  make  the 
United  States  one  consolidated  state.  Had  his  will 
been  equal  to  his  intellect,  he  might  possibly  have 
found  some  just  way  to  vindicate  his  rights,  which  were 
also  his  duties  to  his  countrymen,  when  he  found  them 
persistently  denied.  Daniel  Webster's  career  proves 
that  even  a  free  country  can  make  and  keep  her  great- 
est man  a  slave.  Daniel  Webster  was  the  Prometheus 
bound  of  American  history,  born  with  an  unalienable 
right  to  rule,  yet  never  permitted  to  rule. 

John  Ouincy  Adams  never  had  a  fair,  free  field  for 
work,  though  his  genius,  wisdom,  and  patriotism  could 
not  wholly  be  repressed.  He  had  the  power  and  the 
courage  to  administer  a  mighty  dominion.  His  con- 
structive energy  was  equal  to  his  fearless  will  ;  but,  like 
Hamilton  and  Webster,  his  national  abilities  were  ham- 
pered, badgered,  and  harassed  by  federal  ways  and  rules. 
A  man  like  him  born  in  a  European  monarchy,  uniting, 
as  he  did,  practical  sagacity  with  ideal  inspiration,  and 
high,  deep,  broad,  intellectual  culture  with  a  fervent, 
earnest,  determined  spirit,  would  have  been  prime  min- 


6  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

ister  for  a  very  long  time,  and  would  have  made  his 
country  illustrious  by  a  splendid  and  beneficent  career. 
John  Quincy  Adams,  in  the  Cabinet,  was  the  victim 
of  the  ambitious  jealousy  of  others,  and  was  obliged  to 
see  his  own  plans  baffled,  and  to  bear  the  blame  of 
what  he  had  resisted,  and  to  see  his  own  plans  succeed, 
while  others  took  the  praise.  When  he  was  President, 
Congress  tried  harder  to  circumvent  him  than  to  make 
the  country  prosperous  and  powerful.  Yet  his  fame  will 
grow  daily  brighter  and  brighter. 

Charles  Sumner,  though  not  so  great  a  man  as  Dan- 
iel Webster,  had  a  happier  lot,  since  he  rounded  the 
full  measure  of  his  ability,  opportunity,  and,  what  is 
of  more  consequence,  public  responsibility.  He  was 
greater  and  more  efficient  where  he  was  than  he  could 
have  been  anywhere  else.  He  was  born  a  tribune  of 
the  people.  Whether  or  not  he  had  the  faculty  to  ad- 
minister government  cannot  certainly  be  known.  He 
had  the  power,  equally  needed  and  perhaps  equally  great, 
to  inspire  legislation  and  administration.  Others  had 
to  develop  moral  sentiment  in  favor  of  impartial  justice, 
and  they  did  it.  God  bless  them  and  their  memories 
forever !  Charles  Sumner  had  to  create  a  determined 
political  policy  in  behalf  of  impartial  justice,  and  he  did 
it ;  or,  at  least,  he  was  the  most  effective  worker  in  do- 
ing it,  and  he  made  it  his  single  aim  to  do  it.  It  shows 
no  great  discernment  to  claim  the  title  of  statesman  for 
him  who  makes  the  body  of  a  law,  and  to  deny  it  to 
him  who  imparts  the  soul  of  the  law. 


CHARLES    SUMNER.  7 

For  a  large  part  of  his  career  Charles  Sumner  ad- 
dressed his  country  mainly,  and  the  Senate  but  in- 
cidentally. This  is,  of  course,  opposed  to  the  true 
parliamentary  theory.  Probably  no  one  knew  this 
fact  better  than  he  did.  Strictly  speaking,  a  parlia- 
ment or  a  congress  is  intended,  not  for  the  enuncia- 
tion of  principles,  but  for  the  application  of  principles 
to  the  making  of  laws  ;  as  a  court  of  justice  is  in- 
tended, not  for  the  declaration  of  abstract  laws,  but 
for  the  application  of  law  to  actual  cases.  But  Mr. 
Sumner  was  obliged  to  do  as  he  did  from  the  neces- 
sity of  his  position.  For  a  long  time  he  really  repre- 
sented ideas  only,  —  constituents  not  always  thoroughly 
represented  in  Congress  ;  and  he  had  to  address  ideas, 
if  he  hoped  to  be  able  ever  to  turn  ideas  into  voters. 
He  had  to  excavate  the  road  and  lay  the  track,  if  he 
expected  ever  to  set  the  train  in  motion.  He  did  his 
peculiar  work  and  did  it  well.  He  could  not  always 
carry  his  points.  Some  of  them  ought  not  to  have 
been  carried.  But  his  failure  to  make  others  act 
where  he  was  unquestionably  right  does  not  prove 
that  he  was  not  a  true  statesman  ;  it  rather  goes  to 
prove  that  others  were  not  true  statesmen.  Some  of 
his  mistakes  as  a  statesman  were  not  mistakes  in  a 
comprehensive  survey  of  the  work'  to  be  done,  but 
only  in  the  light  of  the  immediate  object. 

Mr.  Sumner  was  a  true  statesman,  because  he  acted 
according  to  the  American  political  theory,  and  did 
the   best   he   could    with    it.     In   other   parhamentary 


8  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

countries  legislators  are  the  leaders  of  the  people,  or 
are  supposed  to  be.  In  this  country  the  people  are 
the  leaders  ;  and  legislators,  though  seeming  to  lead, 
really  follow.  Mr.  Sumner,  then,  very  properly,  though 
himself  personally  really  a  leader  and  not  a  follower, 
and  the  representative  of  ideas  for  which  he  desired 
success,  addressed  the  people  themselves,  even  from 
his  senatorial  chair.  This  is  why  he  was  feared.  Had 
he  chained  his  theories  to  the  actual  projects  of  law 
before  the  Senate,  he  would  not  have  been  feared, 
and  there  would  have  been  no  occasion  to  fear  him. 
Even  when  his  party  came  into  power,  it  was  still 
needful  for  him  to  make  impressions  on  the  Senate 
through  the  impressions  made  on  ^the  people  ;  for  he 
knew  that,  according  to  the  American  theory  of  gov- 
ernment, the  Senate  never  would  act  until  told  by  the 
people  or  by  the  States  to  act.  In  taking  things  as 
they  were,  placed  as  he  was,  and  in  seeking  to  guide 
public  opinion  directly,  even  when  in  form  appealing 
to  the  Senate,  Mr.  Sumner,  so  far  from  showing  de- 
fective statesmanship,  showed  consummate  statesman- 
ship. Besides,  we  can  have  no  Congressional  debates, 
properly  speaking,  as  long  as  the  members  of  the  Cab- 
inet are  excluded  from  Congress.  Congress  without 
authorized  and  commissioned  representatives  of  the 
government,  is  like  a  ship  without  a  compass,  a  helm, 
or  a  pilot. 

Charles    Sumner   was    imperious    and    domineering. 
His    best   friend  will    not   deny  that  ;    but    his    worst 


CHARLES    SUMNER.  9 

enemy  will  not  deny  that  he  was  imperious  for  what 
he  believed  to  be  right,  that  he  was  domineering  for 
what  he  believed  to  be  truth.  It  would  have  been 
hard  for  the  most  amiable  of  men,  feeling  so  deeply 
his  personal  and  representative  responsibility,  encoun- 
tering so  many  obstacles,  and  seeing  so  many  expe- 
dients set  up  as  dummies  for  principles,  not  to  have 
developed  an  imperious  and  impatient  temper.  A 
man  less  sincere  could  better  have  kept  his  equa- 
nimity. He  was  thoroughly  in  earnest.  He  had  no 
liking  to  see  things  half  done.  Victory  was  to  him  but 
the  starting-point  of  more  warfare.  Defeat  spurred 
him  to  win  success,  and  success  spurred  him  to  new 
successes.  His  endeavors  rose  like  Alps  on  Alps. 
Had  he  lived  a  hundred  years  longer,  he  would  have 
found  to  his  last  hour  some  right  to  fight  for,  some 
wrong  to  challenge  and  resist.  He  was  a  chivalric 
knight,  armed  with  truth,  and  wielding  the  lance  of 
justice.  He  made  mortal  enemies,  but  immortal 
friends,  —  the  friends  of  God  and  man  in  all  coming 
ages,  who  will  honor  his  words  and  deeds.  The  time 
will  come  when  his  name  will  be  revered  where,  dur- 
ing his  life,  it  was  scorned  and  denounced.  Wherever, 
throughout  the  land,  hands  freed  from  the  fetters  of 
slavery  have  been  lifted  in  joy  and  thanksgiving  to 
God  for  the  gift  of  liberty,  hearts  have  been  bowed 
in  grief  for  the  death  of  Charles  Sumner.  But  the 
time  will  come  when  it  will  be  owned  that,  in  desir- 
ing and  demanding  justice  for  one  man  made  in  the 
I* 


lO  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

image  of  God,  he  neither  desired  nor  demanded  in- 
justice for  another  man  made  in  the  image  of  God. 
The  time  will  come  when  the  fiercest  curses  heaped 
on  the  grave  of  slavery  will  be  cast  by  the  most 
cultured  and  eloquent  lips  of  the  South.  The  time 
will  come  when  the  lilies  of  the  purest  white  and  the 
roses  of  the  purest  bloom  that  will  be  woven  together 
to  honor  the  memory  of  Charles  Sumner  will  grow  on 
Southern  soil,  and  will  be  plucked  and  placed  by  the 
fairest  of  Southern  hands. 

In  common  with  many  who  had  long  admired  and 
honored  Charles  Sumner  as  a  political  guide,  I  was 
troubled  and  vexed  by  his  course  at  the  last  Presi- 
dential election,  and  I  expressed  my  feeling  to  others 
without  reserve.  I  yet  think  that,  as  things  looked 
and  were,  he  made  a  mistake.  Forbearance  was  wiser 
than  a  rash  experiment.  Yet,  when  the  movement  to 
rescind  the  vote  of  censure  called  forth  great  and 
unjust  bitterness  towards  him,  all  the  impatience  I 
ever  had  with  his  course  vanished  at  once.  I  then 
wrote  to  him,  stating  frankly  the  ground  on  which  I 
thought  the  vote  of  censure  should  have  been  re- 
scinded, as  being  a  revival,  where  least  expected,  of 
the  old  heresy  of  instructing  and  censuring  senators. 
I  added  these  words  :  — 

"  I  may  venture  to  say  a  word  in  assurance  that 
your  services  have  been  too  great  to  cause  any  endur- 
ing alienation.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe  that  the 
case  will  be  with   others  as  it   is  with   myself,  to  be 


CHARLES    SUMNER.  1 1 

drawn  more  earnestly  and  kindly  towards  you,  not- 
withstanding all  differences.  May  God  restore  you  to 
the  full  measure  of  your  strength,  that  you  may  yet 
be  a  leader  of  the  host  ;  for,  though  a  great  work 
was  done  in  saving  the  country  from  destruction,  a 
greater  work  remains  to  be  done  to  consolidate  the 
fruits  of  that  salvation  ;  or,  if  so  be  that  your  labors 
are  drawing  to  a  close,  that  you  sometimes  hear,  in 
the  stillness  of  the  night,  the  rustling  wings  of  the 
angel  of  transition,  may  God  give  you  an  unfailing 
faith  in  Him  who  in  the  prison-house  of  suffering 
fought  with  all  the  powers  of  darkness,  to  win  for 
man  the  noblest  liberty,  and,  dying,  conquered  death. 
God  bless  you  in  all  your  words  and  works  ! " 

Charles  Sumner  nobly  showed  "the  ruling  passion 
strong  in  death,"  for  it  was  the  ruling  passion  of  his 
life  to  plead  for  the  oppressed  ;  and  even  in  his  dy- 
ing agony  his  lips  could  not  forget  or  forego  their 
wonted  duty.  The  best  way  to  honor  his  memory  is 
to  continue  his  work.  Let  principles  pervade  and 
invigorate  policies,  not  policies  pervade  and  weaken 
principles.  So  shall  justice  best  be  done.  So  shall 
the  best  security  be  given  that  we  shall  be,  not  a 
league  of  wrangling  States,  but  one  organic  nation, 
until, 

"  shrivelling  like  a  parched  scroll, 
The  flaming  heavens  together  roll." 


CHAPTER   II. 


SENATORS    AND    STATES, 


What  is  a  senator  ?  What  is  a  State  ?  Or,  rather, 
What  ought  a  senator  to  be  ?  What  ought  a  State 
to  be  ?  These  are  the  questions  which  one  would 
think  should  have  been  at  least  considered,  if  not 
answered,  when  the  great  talk  was  had  about  rescind- 
ing the  vote  of  censure  on  Mr.  Sumner's  resolution. 
Yet  everything  was  talked  about,  except  the  root  of 
the  question.  Here  and  there  it  was  hinted  that 
something  was  involved  in  the  debate  which  con- 
cerned not  Mr.  Sumner  alone  ;  but  the  main  drift  of 
the  discussion  was  for  or  against  Mr.  Sumner,  on  per- 
sonal grounds.  No  doubt  some  voted  to  censure  him, 
to  punish  him  for  exercising  his  own  will  about  the 
Presidential  nomination  ;  others  who  opposed  the 
vote  of  censure,  or  who  afterwards  desired  it  to  be 
rescinded,  did  so  out  of  admiration  and  gratitude  for 
Mr.  Sumner's  character  and  services,  whether  approv- 
ing or  condemning  his  course  in  the  Presidential  con- 
test. The  debate  was  on  the  wrong  tack.  The  whole 
proceeding  took  the  form  of  special  legislation. 

The  vote  of  censure  should  have  been  rescinded,  or. 


SENATORS    AND    STATES.  1 3 

rather,  it  should  not  have  been  passed  ;  but  the  mer- 
its and  services  of  Mr.  Sumner,  great  as  they  were, 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  question.  Mr.  Sumner's 
public  career  forbade  the  idea  that  he  would  care  for 
an  act  of  personal  favor  to  himself  that  did  not  rest 
upon  a  general  principle  of  right.  If  the  expressions 
of  personal  esteem  for  Mr.  Sumner  which  the  occa- 
sion called  forth  had  very  little  to  do  with  the  sub- 
ject, the  bitterness  towards  him  from  some  quarters 
had  very  much  less  to  do  with  it. 

The  true  reason  why  the  vote  of  censure  should 
have  been  rescinded,  or  why,  more  properly,  it  should 
not  have  been  passed,  is  that  Mr.  Sumner  was  a 
national  senator,  and  not  a  special  agent  or  repre- 
sentative of  Massachusetts.  lie  was  under  no  re- 
sponsibility of  any  kind  or  degree  to  give  an  account 
of  himself  or  of  his  doings  as  a  senator  to  the  Legis- 
lature of  Massachusetts.  He  was  responsible,  in  the 
first  place,  to  God,  and,  in  the  second  place,  to  his 
country,  —  that  is,  to  all  his  country,  to  one  part  no 
more  than  to  any  other  part,  —  and  was  as  free  to  act 
and  to  vote  for  what  he  thought  the  good  of  all  his 
country  as  if  he  never  saw  Massachusetts.  Senators 
must  be  chosen  somehow  ;  they  are  chosen  by  the 
States,  —  a  very  poor  way ;  nevertheless,  they  are  so 
chosen  :  but  they  are  national  senators,  and,  if  not 
chosen  as  such,  ought  to  be ;  and  the  reason  of 
things  is  alone  to  be  considered  in  deciding  a  ques- 
tion of  right.     One  State  has  no  more  right  than  any 


14  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

* 

Other  State,  that  is,  no  right  at  all,  to  tell  a  national 
senator  how  he  must  vote,  or  officially  to  pat  or  to 
pound  him  for  his  vote,  or  for  what  resolutions  he 
may  offer  or  may  not  offer  in  his  place  in  the  Sen- 
ate. There  never  was  much,  in  the  way  of  right  or 
justice,  in  the  doctrine  of  senatorial  instructions ; 
and  what  little  there  was  has  been  blown  to  pieces 
at  the  cannon's  mouth.  You  cannot  find  the  frag- 
ments of  the  exploded  theory,  if  you  try ;  and,  if 
you  could,  it  would  be  folly  to  put  them  together 
again. 

Having  endeavored  to  clear  the  track  of  some  ver- 
bal rubbish,  I  will  frankly  own  that  I  know  per- 
fectly well  that  these  propositions  will  be  denied  by 
many.  Nevertheless,  I  believe  them  to  be  true.  They 
open  a  wide  field  of  discussion,' and  that  I  propose  in 
due  time  to  enter  ;  but,  before  considering  the  great 
question  of  national  sovereignty,  what  it  is  or  ought 
to  be,  I  desire,  now  that  my  main  point  is  stated,  to 
say  what  seems  to  be  required,  that  I  may  not  seem 
wanting  in  all  due  respect  to  Senator  Sumner.  I 
could  not  follow  him  in  his  course  during  the  last 
Presidential  election,  because,  though  great  evils  exist- 
ed, which  then  required,  and  now  require,  to  be  cor- 
rected, the  remedy  proposed  would  have  wrought 
greater  mischief  than  it  could  have  cured. 

The  entire  subversion  of  all  that  is  highest  and 
best  in  civilization  to  a  grovelling  materialism  is  sad 
enough   and    bad    enough  ;    and    to    find    the   govern- 


SENATORS   AND    STATES.  1$ 

ment   falling  in  with  the  current,  instead  of  standing 
against  it,  is  sadder  and  worse. 

The  fact  is  humiliating  that  the  tone  of  American 
life  is  lower  since  the  war,  which  was  supposed  to  be 
about  to  usher  in  a  new  era  of  national  honor  and 
culture,  than  it  was  before.  It  may  be,  indeed,  that 
we  are  in  a  state  of  transition  from  lower  to  higher 
aims  ;  but  the  transition  is  very  bewildering  and  lasts 
a  very  long  time.  The  promised  light  refuses  to 
come.  The  days  grow  darker  every  day,  and  the 
thoughtful  patriot  can  dimly  see  little  more  than  a 
broad  and  dismal  waste,  crowded  with  men  ravenous 
for  gain  ;  while  those  who  desire  and  seek  better 
things  are  trarnpled  under  foot  like  dogs.  Yet  the 
war  was  right,  though  it  has  been  followed  by  a  dis- 
appointment so  bitter  to  those  who  expected  a  new 
and  glorious  national  life  to  be  its  quick  and  chief 
result,  —  a  disappointment  which  is  without  a  parallel 
in  history,  except  in  the  dreary  anguish  which  fol- 
lowed the  ecstasy  with  which  the  French  Revolution 
was  hailed.  The  devil  of  African  slavery  has,  indeed, 
been  exorcised.  Thank  God  for  that.  But  the  coun- 
try, yet  suffering  from  the  ravages  of  its  foaming  and 
yelling  departure,  is  not  yet  restored  to  her  right 
mind ;  and  other  devils,  glaring  and  wrangling,  are 
crowding  around,  struggling,  raving,  tugging,  fighting 
with  hand  and  hoof,  to  get  the  vacant  place. 
.  To  Mr.  Sumner's  honor,  he  has  not  only  been  the 
steadfast  friend  of  equal  liberty,  under  the  protection 


l6  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

of  just  and  equal  laws,  but  he  has  manfully  upheld 
the  claims  of  that  higher  and  nobler  civilization  which 
the  New  World,  reaping  the  rich  harvest  of  all  pre- 
ceding ages,  was  expected  to  show,  but  which,  for 
some  reason,  has  been  indefinitely  postponed.  In  this 
remarkable  age  of  little  men  in  great  places,  Mr.  Sum- 
ner had  so  easy  a  pre-eminence  by  his  true  ability, 
that  to  some  he  may  appear  a  statesman  by  contrast 
only ;  whereas  he  would  have  won  renown  at  any 
period  of  our  history,  even  in  those  times,  which  seem 
to  have  gone  forever,  when  the  strongest  and  ablest 
men  in  the  country  were  sent  to  the  national  coun- 
cils as  a  matter  of  course,  but  who  now  would  have 
no  more  chance  to  direct  public  affairs  than  if  they 
lived  in  Nova  Zembla  or  nowhere.  They  could  no 
more  go  to  Congress  than  some  of  their  successful 
competitors  could  go  to  Heaven.  Mr.  Sumner  was 
one  of  the  very  few  men  in  public  life  who  were 
statesmen  ;  but  the  great  majority  of  members  of 
Congress,  of  both  houses,  can  be  called  statesmen 
only  by  courtesy.  Men  capable,  wise,  patriotic,  and 
upright,  gentlemen  of  culture  and  courtesy,  are  not 
wanting ;  the  trouble  is  they  arc  not  wanted.  They 
are  intruders  in  this  America  of  ours,  where  all  that 
is  worst  is  in  the  ascendant,  and  all  that  is  best  is 
dragged  in  the  mire.  God  grant  that  it  may  not  al- 
ways be  so !  It  will  not  always  be  so.  Years  ago 
Longfellow  sang,  — 

"  There  is  a  poor,  blind  Snmson  In  this  land." 


SENATORS    AND    STATES.  1/ 

So  there  is  now  a  Samson  in  the  land,  now  as  then 
a  slave.  This  Samson  is  the  aggregate  intellectual 
power,  genius,  culture,  everything  which  makes  the 
true  greatness  of  nations,  which  is  now  and  long  has 
been  bound  and  blinded  in  America,  doing  the  bid- 
ding and  grinding  in  the  mill  of  the  Philistines  of 
the  caucus.  The  slave  will  not  always  do  that  bidding. 
He  will  yet  recover  his  strength  and  will  use  it.  He 
will  vindicate  his  right  to  be  heard,  if  only  by  the 
crash  he  makes ;  and  he  will  rule,  or  know  why  not. 

As  in  every  great  national  emergency,  so  in  ours,  — 
much  sterling  worth  was  brought  out  of  obscurity  to 
do  good  deeds,  and  to  win  a  bright  and  honorable 
fame  ;  but,  also,  the  boiling  caldron  of  civil  war 
brought  to  the  surface  heaps  of  political  scum,  which> 
instead  of  being  skimmed  off  and  thrown  away,  is 
piously  preserved,  and  perhaps  is  sent  to  Congress,  as 
bait  for  lobbies. 

No  man,  it  seems  to  me,  can  justly  deny  the  great 
merit  of  President  Grant  in  guiding  our  armies  with 
wisdom  and  success,  or  can  refuse  to  him  the  deep 
gratitude  which  he  has  deserved  and  won ;  yet  no  man 
can  justly  affirm  that  he  has  high  intellectual  affinities 
and  sympathies,  —  those  qualities  of  the  head  warmed 
by  the  heart,  and  of  the  heart  invigorated  by  the  head, 
which  in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries  constitute  the 
highest  kind  of  men,  the  leaders  of  the  race.  He  did 
his  duty  and  share  in  saving  what  we  had.  Thank  him 
and  thank  God  for  that !  Yet  he  has  developed  but  little 


1 8  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

of  that  power,  in  his  civil  administration,  which  the 
times  demanded,  —  that  power  which  impresses  itself 
upon  people  and  institutions  for  ages,  which  leads  a 
nation  out  of  the  marshes  and  quicksands  of  disorder, 
consolidates  and  concentrates  authority,  wins  and  holds 
the  hearts  of  thousands,  not  only  by  heroic  ability  but 
by  heroic  enthusiasm,  and  is  even  stronger  in  death 
than  in  life. 

We  needed  a  man  whose  eye  would  have  seen  what 
the  war  meant,  and  whose  unbending  will  and  unyield- 
ing hand  would  have  secured  it  for  the  good  and  the 
praise  of  all  coming  time.  We  needed  a  man  like 
those  who,  here  and  there,  shine  out  along  the  centu- 
ries, who  establish  dominions  upon  immovable  rocks, 
and  whose  fame  and  praise  for  their  benefits  to  man- 
kind are  as  enduring  as  the  structures  they  build.  We 
needed  a  man  who  would  recognize  the  permanent 
glory  of  nations,  the  inspiring  power  of  books,  of  works 
of  art,  of  Christian  institutions, — who  would  favor  and 
encourage  with  all  his  energy  all  the  objects  of  true  and 
enduring  fame.  We  needed  a  man  whose  personality 
would  throb  through  all  the  ages  of  his  country's  life, 
like  that  of  Alfred  in  England.  No  such  man  was 
found.  No  such  man  is  found.  It  is  not  the  fault  of 
President  Grant  that  he  is  not  an  architect  of  domin- 
ion ;  that  he  is  not,  in  other  words,  one  of  the  immortal 
men  of  history  :  but  it  is,  at  least,  his  misfortune  that 
he  has  failed  to  see  what  his  country  needs  for  its 
honor,    security,  and   peace ;    and    he    seems   to    repel 


SENATORS    AND    STATES.  1 9 

those  who  do  see  and  know  it.  He  could  wisely  com- 
bine armies,  but  he  seems  to  have  no  skill  or  inclina- 
tion to  organize  civil  authority.  After  rendering  so 
great  and  noble  service  in  the  field,  he  seems  to  be 
willing  to  float  down  the  current  of  his  country's  his- 
tory on  "  flowery  beds  of  ease,"  rather  than  to  see  and 
feel  that  the  war  simply  cleared  the  way  for  the  work 
of  peace,  —  not  the  pleasure  of  peace,  not  the  languor 
of  peace,  but  the  work  of  peace ;  that  is,  the  foundation, 
deep,  strong,  and  imperishable,  of  national  unity.  The 
President  was,  of  course,  bound  by  his  oath  of  office  ; 
but  he  would  not  have  broken  that  oath  by  telling  the 
people  plainly  what  the  country  needs. 

To  return  to  Mr.  Sumner  and  his  resolution.  Mr, 
Sumner  has  been  too  faithful  a  soldier  himself  in  the 
Senate,  where  true  courage  is  more  rare  than  on  the 
battle-field,  to  permit  the  belief  that  he  would  willingly 
take  away  one  jot  of  the  honor  and  praise  due  to  those 
who  put  their  lives  in  peril  for  their  country.  Happily, 
it  is  not  in  the  power  of  any  man,  of  any  senator,  of  all 
the  country,  or  of  all  the  world,  to  pluck  one  leaf  from 
the  laurels  of  our  loyal  soldiers.  Their  record  has  gone 
beyond  the  reach  of  any  blotting  pen,  and  belongs  to 
immortal  history  and  to  God.  Mr.  Sumner's  resolu- 
tion, whether  wise  or  unv/ise,  was  perfectly  consistent 
with  his  record  for  thirty  years.  He  may  have  thought 
that,  so  far  from  taking  away  any  honor  from  the  na- 
tional army,  it  was  really  adding  more,  to  admit  that 
their  work  had  been  so  well  done  that  the  regimental 


20  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

colors  of  the  army  might  be  permitted  to  tell  their  own 
triumphant  story,  waving  in  the  free  wind  in  every  part 
of  the  land,  without  memorials  of  civil  conflict  on  their 
victorious  folds.  Whatever  promotes  unity  of  feeling 
promotes  unity  of  power.  Mr.  Sumner  may  have 
thought  that  perhaps  the  time  had  come  when  the 
soldiers  of  the  whole  country,  having  laid  aside  their 
arms,  might  be  willing  to  kneel  together,  with  heads 
bared  and  bowed,  and  with  clasped  hands,  around  the 
altar  of  their  country,  to  be  strengthened  by  her  sub- 
lime and  sacred  power.  His  wish  may  have  been  the 
father  to  his  thought,  but  it  was  an  honorable  wish. 
His  faith  may  have  been  too  great,  but  it  was  a  patri- 
otic faith. 

As  I  understand  Mr.  Sumner's  resolution,  it  was  that 
the  regimental  colors  of  the  Regular  Army  of  the  United 
States  should  not  be  inscribed  with  the  names  of  bat- 
tles in  which  the  victory  was  won  over  fellow-citizens  ; 
and  I  understand  him  to  justify  the  resolution  by  refer- 
ring to  the  fact  that  civil  wars  were  not  so  commemo- 
rated in  England,  France,  or  Spain,  or  the  European 
countries  generally.  I  think  that  the  illustrations  from 
European  history  are  not  exactly  appropriate.  The 
contending  parties  in  the  civil  wars  of  England,  France, 
and  Spain  were  all  equally  agreed  in  upholding  the 
national  authority,  and  had  no  intention  to  divide  the 
national  territory  between  them.  They  fought  for  the 
control  of  the  nation,  but  not  for  its  destruction.  They 
sought  to  change  the  dynasty  or  the  form  of  govern- 


SENATORS    AND    STATES.  21 

ment,  or  to  promote  some  special  design  ;  but  they  all 
professed,  and  no  doubt  sincerely,  to  respect  the  na- 
tional rights  as  such,  and  they  fought  under  the  flag 
of  their  country.  Even  the  Parliament  of  England 
made  war  upon  the  king  in  the  king's  name,  and  were 
as  eager  as  the  king  himself  for  the  honor  and  interest 
of  the  whole  British  dominion.  The  royal  armies  of 
Charles  the  First  fought  loyally  for  their  sovereign,  but 
also  patriotically  for  all  their  country.  The  people  of 
Ireland  fought  with  most  heroic  courage  for  James  the 
Second,  the  lawful  sovereign  of  the  United  Kingdom  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  against  the  invading  Prince 
of  Orange  ;  and  later  yet,  the  brave  Highlanders  of 
Scotland  fought  nobly  with  Charles  Edward  for  his 
father,  the  lawful  sovereign  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, against  the  brutal  boor  and  pretender  who  oc- 
cupied his  throne.  In  each  case  the  heroic  devotion 
was  unsuccessful.  Usurpation  and  wrong  won  the  day 
against  right  and  justice  ;  but  neither  the  English  nor 
the  Irish  nor  the  Scotch  fought  for  any  division  of 
power  or  territory,  but  for  the  rights  of  the  lawful  ruler 
of  the  whole  national  domain.  It  would  have  been 
adding  insult  to  injury  with  a  vengeance,  if  Oliver 
Cromwell,  William  of  Orange,  or  George  of  Brunswick 
had  emblazoned  on  the  national  banners  their  victories 
over  all  that  remained  of  blended  loyal  and  patriotic 
devotion  in  the  British  Empire.  That  would  have 
been  like  what  might  have  happened  here  if  the  "  Con- 
federate Army  "  had  conquered  the  National  Army  and 


22  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

had  transferred  the  capital  of  the  "  Confederacy "  to 
Washington.  How  would  our  people  have  liked  to 
have  "  Bull  Run "  inscribed  on  the  national  banner, 
and  every  year  to  call  their  humiliation  a  "glorious 
revolution,"  like  the  people  of  England  in   1688? 

Robespierre  himself,  bad  as  he  was,  was  as  firmly 
patriotic  as  the  Grand  Monarch  himself,  and  as  decided 
in  upholding  the  authority  of  united  France.  Even 
those  who  desired  to  turn  back  the  tide  of  ages,  and 
degrade  France  into  a  federal  republic,  did  not  intend 
actually  to  dismember  the  country.  That  might  have 
been  the  result,  for  federalism  is  always  and  every- 
where disintegrating ;  but  it  was  evidently  no  part 
of  their  design.  Most  certainly  it  was  not  avowed. 
Nevertheless,  the  French  federalists  were  certainly  the 
enemies  of  their  country  in  fact,  though  not  by  inten- 
tion. Robespierre  was  right  in  regarding  them  as 
public  enemies,  though  he  had  no  right  to  put  them 
to  death  as  traitors,  for  they  were  public  enemies  by 
construction  only. 

So,  since  Spain  has  been  one  country,  though  pro- 
vincial jealousies  are  stronger  there  than  anywhere  else 
in  Europe,  yet  no  Spanish  party  has  striven  to  break 
up  the  unity  of  their  country.  Now,  as  in  other  times, 
men,  rising  in  wild  insurrection,  may  disclaim  and  try 
to  destroy  all  authority  ;  yet  Spaniards  generally  would 
forget  all  differences,  and  would  rise  at  once  and  as 
one  to  resist  any  design  or  attempt  to  break  Spain  into 
pieces.     All  Spaniards  are  proud,  as  they  well  may  be, 


SENATORS    AND    STATES.  23 

of  their  glorious  flag,  of  their  noble  country,  of  their 
chivalric  history  ;  yet  Spain,  like  her  illustrious  sister, 
France,  has  good  reason  to  beware  of  forfeiting  the  con- 
secrated honor  and  wisdom  of  ages  by  fantastic  experi- 
ments, bewildering  dreams,  and  incongruous  institutions. 
To  these  observations  it  may  be  replied,  that  our 
country  has  never  been  a  nation  in  the  same  sense  as 
England,  France,  and  Spain  are  now  and  were  during 
their  civil  wars.  I  admit  the  force  of  the  objection, 
and  grant  that  civil  war  in  our  country  stood  in  new 
relations,  and  is  to  be  judged  by  itself;  or,  if  com- 
pared with  any  conflicts  in  European  history,  is  to  be 
compared  with  those  only  which  occurred  for  ages  be- 
tween baronial  and  ducal  powers  and  prerogatives  and 
the  growing  spirit  of  nationality.  Feudalism  and  fed- 
eralism are  really  the  same  thing  ;  yet,  during  all  those 
ages,  there  was,  of  course,  something  like  the  germ  of  a 
central  and  national  power  growing  continually  wider 
and  wider,  and  absorbing  more  and  more  of  feudal 
privilege ;  and  certainly  it  would  not  have  been  deemed 
wise  or  concfliatory  towards  those  who  had  been  ab- 
sorbed in  the  rising  nationality,  to  record  the  victories 
over  them  on  the  flag  which  was  meant  to  represent 
the  principle  and  fact  of  nationality.  This  considera- 
tion makes  the  case  stronger  for  Mr.  Sumner's  resolu- 
tion than  against  it.  I  presume  no  thoughtful  man  will 
deny  that  our  civil  war  was  a  conflict  between  federal- 
ism and  nationality.  To  be  sure,  while  the  war  lasted, 
the  Confederate  States   had  a  far  more   consolidated 


24  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

government  than  the  National  States.  They  were,  in 
fact,  a  consohdated  power,  fighting  for  federal  princi- 
ples ;  while  the  loyal  States  were  a  federal  Union  fight- 
ing for  national  principles.  This  fact  explains  why  the 
national  forces  were  baffled  so  long.  The  government 
which  was  fighting  against  a  common  nationality  had, 
for  the  time,  far  more  concentrated  energy  than  the 
government  which  was  fighting  for  it.  The  people  of 
the  seceding  States,  taking  up  arms  avowedly  for  State 
rights,  yielded  not  only  without  grumbling,  but  with 
unbounded  zeal,  to  an  administration  which  practically 
ignored  State  rights;  while  the  national  government  and 
the  people  of  the  loyal  States  were  hampered  and  har- 
assed all  through  the  war  by  large  numbers  professing  to 
be  true  to  the  Union,  who  denounced  what  little  unity  of 
administration  could  be  exercised,  and  seemed  to  be  a 
thousand  times  more  eager  for  State  rights  than  the 
armed  adherents  of  State  rights,  as  they  were  a  thou- 
sand times  greater  public  enemies.  If  each  side  had 
acted  in  consistency  with  the  real  theories  in  dispute, — 
that  is,  if  the  seceding  States  had  conducted  the  war  on 
the  principle  of  a  debating  society  of  sovereign  States, 
and  the  loyal  States  had  acted  throughout  with  the  un- 
hindered, unflinching  energy  of  a  national  government, 
—  the  war  would  have  been  a  very  short  one  indeed. 
By  kicking  State  rights  overboard,  the  Confederate  gov- 
ernment nearly  won  the  race  ;  by  keeping  on  board 
the  cumbersome  deck-load  of  State  rights,  the  national 
government  nearly  lost  the  race.     That  race  it  would 


SENATORS   AND    STATES.  25 

have  lost  on  account  of  that  deference  to  State  rights, 
but  for  its  greater  resources.  Though  feclerahsm  was 
weighed  in  the  balances,  on  both  sides  of  the  line,  and 
found  equally  wanting,  it  is  yet  adored  like  Juggernaut. 

But  I  am  going  further  in  this  direction  than  I  mean 
at  present.  I  will  abruptly  return,  merely  remarking 
that  the  more  Mr.  Sumner's  proposition  is  considered, 
whether  as  referring  to  past  events  or  as  an  abstract 
rule,  the  less  deserving  it  will  be  found  to  be  of  that 
flood  of  scorn  which  by  some  was  thrown  upon  it.  It 
is  open,  like  all  other  senatorial  acts  or  designs,  to 
public  or  private  criticism,  but  not  to  official  censure 
from  any  quarter. 

Special  legislation  is  a  curse  to  any  country.  On 
rare  occasions  it  may  be  required,  but  so  very  rarely, 
that  special  legislation  stands  universally  condemned  in 
theory.  Now,  the  essential  principle  of  special  legisla- 
tion is  an  endeavor  to  make  the  part  greater  than  the 
whole.  Special  legislation  is  made,  not  occasional,  but 
the  permanent  rule,  the  perpetual  order  of  the  day,  if 
a  senator  is  compelled  to  drag  his  State  into  the  Sen- 
ate after  him  ;  and  whenever  any  question  arises  on 
which  he  must  decide,  he  must  turn  his  eyes  around  to 
his  State,  as  to  a  familiar  spirit,  and,  according  as  she 
smiles  or  frowns,  must  go  on  or  draw  back,  must  vote 
yes  or  vote  no.  The  idea  that  the  election  of  a  senator 
is  a  retaining  fee,  paid  him  by  the  State,  which  the  sen- 
ator must  accordingly  regard  as  his  client,  and  which  he 
must  defend  at  all  hazards,  on  all  points,  right  or  wrong, 
2 


26  ■  THE   AMERICAN    STATE. 

against  all  the  rest  of  the  country,  if  need  be,  is  subver- 
sive of  all  right  views  of  government  in  theory,  and  has 
been,  in  practice,  one  of  the  causes  of  a  long  and  ter- 
rible war.  States  have  no  right  to  be  lobbies.  To 
choose  a  man  is  neither  to  gag  nor  to  bribe  him,  nor 
to  bind  him  to  think,  speak,  and  act  just  as  he  is  offi- 
cially told  to  think,  speak,  and  act.  The  freedom  of  the 
Senate  should  be  guarded  on  all  sides,  and  on  no  side 
more  strongly  than  on  that  of  interference  by  any 
State  or  States  as  such,  in  national  legislation.  A 
senator  is  not  a  voting  machine,  controlled  by  wires 
from  the  State  which  sent  him.  When  a  State  has 
chosen  a  national  senator,  her  duty  is  done  until  the 
time  to  choose  again.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  she 
has  deliberated  long  and  well,  that  she  has  chosen 
one  whom  she  can  trust  to  be  true  to  his  country  ; 
and  that  is  all  the  pledge  which  she  has  a  right 
to  demand,  and  no  more  right  than  any  other  State. 
Aside  from  a  senator's  duty  to  God,  the  voice  of  his 
country  is  the  only  one  which  has  a  right  to  be  heard, 
the  only  one  to  which  he  is  bound  to  listen  ;  but  even 
that  he  is  under  no  obligation  to  obey,  unless  it  urges 
him  to  do  what  he  knows  or  believes  to  be  right. 

If  the  view  of  the  senatorial  office  which  a  majority 
of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  pronounced  be 
correct,  which  virtually  is,  that  the  State,  not  the  sen- 
ator, speaks,  decides,  votes,  and  offers  resolutions  in 
Congress,  then  the  national  Senate  is  as  cumbersome 
a  piece  of  machinery  as  the  Electoral  College  itself. 


SENATORS    AND    STATES.  2/ 

In  that  case,  let  the  Senate  be  abolished  ;  and,  in  its 
place,  let  there  be  established  at  Washington  a  national 
telegraph  office,  with  wires  to  the  capitals  of  all  the 
States.  Clerks  should  be  in  attendance,  who  should  be 
required,  when  a  question  arises  in  the  Cabinet,  needing 
the  sanction  of  a  majority  of  the  States,  to  send  and  pro- 
cure a  certified  despatch  of  the  opinions  of  every  State, 
as  represented  by  its  government.  How  easy  to  get  that 
opinion  !  How  easy  to  count  votes,  to  compare  notes, 
and  form  a  decision,  —  not  the  decision  of  a  national  gov- 
ernment, for  that  would  be  usurpation  and  all  that,  but 
the  decision,  on  "general  average,"  of  the  United  States  ! 
How  worthy  such  a  plan  would  be  of  a  great  nation  ! 
And  what  a  wonderful  saving  of  money  !  That  would  be 
an  arrangement  of  "  checks  and  balances  "  that  ought  to 
satisfy  the  most  timid  patriot,  who  hardly  dares  to  sleep 
at  night  lest  he  should  be  wanting  in  "eternal  vigi- 
lance." How  original  a  statement  it  would  be  to  put  on 
the  national  records,  that  the  Secretary  of  State  will 
have  to  assure  the  minister  of  some  foreign  govern- 
ment that,  in  consequence  of  a  violent  east-wind  which 
has  prevailed  for  some  days,  telegraphic  communication 
between  the  capital  of  the  United  States  and  the 
States  themselves  has  been  interrupted  ;  and  therefore 
the  undersigned  is  unable  to  say  at  the  moment  what 
the  views  of  the  majority  of  the  United  States  of, 
America  are  on  the  question  proposed  by  His  Excel- 
lency :  but  as  soon  as  the  cast-wind  subsides  wliich, 
in  the  spirit  of  amity  which  happily  prevails  between 


28  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

the  government  of  His  Excellency  and  the  nearly 
forty  governments  of  the  undersigned,  the  undersigned 
ventures  to  observe  must  be  as  annoying  to  His  Excel- 
lency personally  as  to  him  as  the  representative  of  his 
government,  and  as  soon  as  telegraphic  communication 
is  restored,  the  undersigned  will  take  pleasure  in  procur- 
ing and  conveying  to  His  Excellency  the  decision  of 
the  majority  of  the  United  States,  unless  there  should 
unfortunately  be  a  tie,  in  which  case  His  Excellency 
will  observe  that  the  difficulty  of  reaching  a  decision 
will  be,  in  a  singular  and  interesting  manner,  the  very 
reverse  of  the  one  before  explained  ;  nevertheless.  His 
Excellency  will  be  duly  and  promptly  informed  of  the 
progress  of  events  !  Meanwhile,  hoping  in  the  spirit 
of  amity,  as  above  indicated,  for  clear  weather  and 
unbroken  wires,  or,  in  the  contingency  named,  for  a 
broken  tie,  the  undersigned,  in  the  name  of  the  nearly 
forty  governments,  for  which,  by  the  direction  of  the 
President,  he  has  the  honor  to  act,  ventures,  without 
waiting  for  special  instructions  to  that  effect  from  the 
nearly  forty  governments  aforesaid,  to  renew  to  His 
Excellency  the  assurance  of  his  very  distinguished  con- 
sideration ! 

All  the  legislative  proceedings  about  annulling  the 
vote  of  censure  would  have  been  entirely  out  of  order, 
except  that  it  is  always  right  to  undo  a  wrong.  If  you 
have  gone  into  your  neighbor's  field  to  remove  his 
landmark,  you  may  be  permitted  to  go  in  again  to 
place  it  where  it  was  before.     May  the  time  come  when 


SENATORS   AND    STATES.  29 

national  senators  will  be  permitted  to  act  unrestricted, 
uninstructed,  and  uncensured  by  any  State,  but  accord- 
ing to  their  own  responsibility  to  their  country. 

One  fallacy  has  been  prominently  brought  forward 
by  those  who  were  opposed  to  rescinding  the  vote  of 
censure,  that  to  do  so  would  be  to  interfere  with  an  act 
of  a  past  Legislature  of  the  State.  The  same  fallacy 
substantially,  more  as  regards  persons  than  acts,  has 
been  frequently  uttered  in  Washington.  Now,  there 
are  no  past  legislatures,  except  in  the  instances  of 
states  and  nations  that  had  legislative  assemblies,  but 
which  are  now  dead  states  or  nations  ;  and  even  they 
may  be  said  to  live  in  new  forms  of  political  life.  The 
legislature  of  a  state  or  nation  is  as  continuous  as  its 
life.  It  is  a  part  of  its  life.  We  divide  the  assemblies 
of  the  States  for  convenient  reference,  just  as  we  num- 
ber each  Congress ;  but,  in  fact,  there  has  been  but 
one  continuous  Congress  since  what  we  call  the  first. 
We  speak  of  past  years,  because  we  have  no  other  way 
to  designate  events,  and  we  divide  the  year  into  months, 
weeks,  days,  and  so  on  ;  but  they  are  all  one  unbroken 
time,  which  does  not  stop  on  the  last  day  of  December, 
to  begin  again  on  the  first  day  of  January,  or  stop  on 
Saturday  night,  to  begin  on  Sunday  morning.  Once  a 
member  of  Congress  always  a  member  of  Congress. 
Responsibility  never  dies.  Members  of  Congress  die, 
terms  expire,  new  members  are  chosen  ;  but  Congress 
never  dies.  Its  sessions  may  be  for  many  months  sus- 
pended, but  they  are   suspended   only.     The   present 


30  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

Congress,  as  wc  call  it  for  convenience,  is  not  only  the 
successor,  but  the  succession  of  every  Congress  that 
has  met  since  the  country  was  born,  as  the  first  Con- 
gress under  the  Constitution  was  the  successor  and  the 
succession  of  the  old  Continental  Congress,  as  the  pres- 
ent Legislature  of  Massachusetts  is  the  successor  and 
the  succession  of  all  the  previous  ones,  and  even  of  the 
colonial  Assembly. 

Consequently  any  Congress  or  Legislature  can  an- 
nul and  rescind  any  act  of  any  preceding  session,  be- 
cause it  is  simply  dealing  with  itself  Of  course,  it 
can  repeal  no  law  without  the  executive  sanction. 
Any  Congress  can  call  to  account  any  member  of  any 
one  before  it,  if  it  chooses,  for  any  offence  which 
would  make  such  a  member  liable  to  punishment,  if 
he  were  a  serving  member.  No  member  can  es- 
cape provided  punishment  by  resigning  his  seat ; 
for  whether  he  resigns  or  not,  he  is  just  as  liable  as 
ever  to  the  laws  of  his  country  and  to  the  disciplinary 
rules  of  Congress.  Nor  can  he  plead,  or  others  for 
him,  that,  having  ceased  to  be  a  member  of  Congress 
by  the  expiration  of  the  term  for  which  he  was  chosen, 
he  is  no  longer  amenable  to  Congress  ;  for  he  is  amen- 
able until  he  is  cleared,  punished,  or  forgiven.  A 
member  of  Congress,  if  convicted  of  wrong  by  the 
judgment  of  his  peers,  can  no  more  justly  escape  pun- 
ishment by  resigning  his  seat,  than  a  private  citizen, 
convicted  of  wrong  by  a  lawful  jury,  can  justly  escape 
punishment  by  resigning  his  rights  and  duties  as  a 
citizen. 


SENATORS   AND    STATES.  3 1 

When  the  secession  of  States  began,  members  of 
Congress  from  the  seceding  States  resigned  their  seats, 
and  their  resignations  were  accepted  ;  but  they  had 
no  power  to  resign,  and  Congress  had  no  power  to 
accept  their  resignations.  They  should  all  have  been 
arrested  on  the  spot  for  violating  their  Federal  respon- 
sibility as  members  of  Congress,  and  should  have  been 
held  as  hostages  for  the  loyalty  of  the  States  which 
sent  them  to  Congress,  and  whose  request  or  command 
they  placed  above,  not  only  their  duty  to  their  coun- 
try, considered  as  a  nation,  but  even  against  their 
Federal  obligations,  on  the  Federal  theory.  As  soon 
as  any  man  is  chosen  to  Congress,  he  passes  out  of 
the  jurisdiction  of  his  own  State,  except,  of  course,  as 
regards  what  he  may  do  as  a  private  citizen,  and  is 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  body  to  which  he  is 
chosen.  His  State  cannot  force  him  to  resign,  nor 
can  he  of  his  own  will  resign  without  some  valid  rea- 
son which  does  not  affect  his  personal  honor  or  legis- 
lative responsibility ;  and  even  then  he  simply  resigns 
his  seat  as  a  member  of  the  acting  Congress.  He  can 
no  more  relinquish  his  membership  in  the  historical 
Congress  than  he  can  relinquish  his  soul. 

The  same  obligation  holds  with  other  members  of 
the  government.  John  Tyler  could  have  been  im- 
peached in  1 86 1  for  taking  up  arms  against  his  coun- 
try as  properly  as  he  could  have  been  for  any  impeach- 
able ©ffencc  in  1 841,  when  he  was  actually  in  office. 
If  found  guilty  at  the  later  period,  he  could   not,  of 


32  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

course,  have  been  removed,  for  he  was  no  longer  act- 
ing as  President ;  but  his  name  could  have  been 
struck  from  the  roll  of  patriotic  Presidents,  of  whatever 
party,  to  be  cited  only,  like  some  unfaithful  kings  in 
European  history,  when  reference  requires. 

This  truth  of  the  continuance  of  all  branches  of  the 
government  is  confirmed  by  the  usual  way  of  speaking 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  We  do  not  speak  of  the  last 
Supreme  Court,  or  of  the  next  one,  but  of  the  last  or 
the  next  term  of  the  Supreme  Court.  By  an  instinc- 
tive feeling  the  Supreme  Court  is  regarded  as  having 
a  continuous  life.  The  fountain  of  justice  is  deemed 
perennial,  though,  in  truth,  it  may  sometimes  get 
muddy,  as  it  did  when  slavery  was  king,  as  it  does 
now,  when  the  irredeemable  greenback  is  king.  That 
fountain  became  very  miry  not  long  ago,  so  that  the 
clear  face  of  justice  could  not  be  seen  in  its  clouded 
depths,  when  the  decision  was  rendered  that  green- 
backs are  lawful  money,  at  their  nominal  value,  for 
debts  contracted  before  irresponsible  greenbacks  were 
authorized  by  law,  —  a  decision  made  in  plain  defiance 
of  the  clause  in  the  Constitution  which  forbids  the  pas- 
sage of  an  "  ex  post  facto  law."  A  law  of  Congress, 
not  intended  to  be  ex  post  facto,  but  simply  to  pro- 
vide for  an  existing  emergency,  if  it  receives  an  ex 
post  facto  interpretation  from  the  Supreme  Court, 
becomes,  in  spite  of  its  intention,  an  ex  post  facto 
law,  and  so  imconstitutional  and  null  and  void.  In 
this  instance,  the  law  so  interpreted  becomes  one  "  im- 


SENATORS    AND    STATES.  33 

pairing  the  obligation  of  contracts,"  and,  consequently, 
opposed  to  the  law  of  God  and  to  Christian  civilization, 
as  well  as  to  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution.  Such  a 
law,  so  interpreted,  requires  no  tribunal  to  declare  it 
unsound,  in  a  legal  respect,  for  it  falls  to  the  ground 
of  itself  by  the  weight  of  its  own  rottenness.  I  know 
very  well  that  it  is  doubted  whether  the  prohibition  of 
ex  post  facto  laws  means  criminal  cases  only  or  civil 
cases  also ;  but,  where  national  honor  is  concerned, 
it  seems  as  wise  as  it  is  patriotic  to  give  to  national 
honor  the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  See  "Madison's  Re- 
port "  for  light  on  this  prohibition. 

It  cannot  be  supposed  that  the  Federal  government 
has  any  right  to  impair  the  obligation  of  contracts  by 
passing  laws  for  that  purpose,  because  such  a  proceed- 
ing is  formally  forbidden  to  the  States  only  ;  for  the 
reason  why  the  prohibition  was  inserted  referring  to 
the  States  evidently  was,  because  similar  things  had 
been  done  by  some  of  the  States,  at  least  by  one,  un- 
der the  Confederation,  and  it  was  intended  that  no 
State  under  the  Constitution  should  be  guilty  of  such 
dishonor.  It  would  be  a  most  absurd  interpretation 
of  the  Constitution,  that  the  general  government  has 
a  special  immunity  to  do  a  wrong,  which  for  ample 
reason  was  expressly  prohibited  to  the  States.  Of 
course,  it  was  not  even  dreamed  of,  that  the  Federal 
government  would  ever  desire  "  to  impair  the  obliga- 
tion of  contracts."  Formally  to  forbid  its  doing  so 
would  be  itself  a  stain  upon  its  honor.     Laws  of  bank- 


34  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

ruptcy  stand  on  a  different  ground,  and  spring  from  a 
special  authority  in  the  Constitution. 

Perhaps  irredeemable  greenbacks  had  a  kind  of  pre- 
adamite  existence,  which  justifies  their  recognition  by 
an  ex  post  facto  interpretation  of  law,  wherever  and 
whenever  they  should  make  their  appearance  in  the 
history  of  the  world  ;  though  one  would  think,  if  they 
had  anything  to  do  with  Paradise,  they  must  have  ap- 
peared on  the  scene  about  the  time  when  a  very  noted 
individual  also  appeared,  who,  having  broken  his  own 
contract  of  loyalty  and  honor,  was  very  naturally  in 
favor  of  "impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts"  every- 
where and  by  all.  Who  can  wonder  at  the  corruption 
which  prevails  in  so  many  departments  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  in  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  land,  when 
a  judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  however  just  or  legal  its  intention,  is  univer- 
sally understood  to  permit  and  sanction  fraud  ?  Of 
course,  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  is  binding 
in  law,  until  reversed.  A  court  of  justice,  composed 
of  the  same  members,  should  not  be  subjected  to  re- 
versing its  decrees  by  the  pressure  of  public  opinion 
only,  even  if  that  opinion  be  right ;  for  it  may  be  sub- 
jected to  the  same  pressure  when  public  opinion  is 
wrong  ;  and  the  very  idea  of  a  court  of  justice  is, 
that  it  should  decide  questions  without  any  regard 
whatever  to  public  opinion.  A  court  of  justice  should 
guide,  not  follow,  public  opinion.  "And  if  the  blind 
lead  the  blind,  both  shall  fall  into  the  ditch."     There 


SENATORS    AND    STATES.  35 

is,  however,  one  way  in  which  the  Supreme  Court  can 
get  out  of  the  mire  and  reach  again  firm  ground. 
Judges  cannot  resign  their  judicial  history,  but  they 
may  at  times,  for  good  and  accepted  reasons,  resign 
actual  service.  The  resignation  of  those  judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  who  pronounced  irredeemable  green- 
backs lawful  money  for  the  payment  of  previous  debts, 
contracted  to  be  paid  in  gold  or  its  equivalent,  would 
do  more  than  anything  else  to  redeem  the  honor  of  our 
highest  tribunal,  and  to  bring  public  opinion  back  to 
its  bearings  on  financial  questions. 

To  the  great  and  enduring  honor  of  Chief  Justice 
Chase,  though  himself  the  author  of  the  greenbacks, 
in  a  terrible  time  of  need,  he  was  opposed  to  forcing 
them  upon  the  country  as  an  irredeemable  and  perma- 
nent currency,  when  the  terror  and  the  need  had  gone. 
The  need  itself  may  be  doubted  ;  but  the  good  faith 
of  Mr.  Chase  is  beyond  a  question.  This  incident 
seems  to  suggest  the  recognition  of  the  fact,  that  no 
judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
is  really  valid  which  lacks  the  assent  of  the  chief 
justice.  Of  course,  neither  he  alone,  nor  with  others 
in  a  minority,  can  make  that  opinion  of  his  own  or  of 
that  minority  law  ;  but  it  is  essential,  and  it  should  be 
so  provided,  that  in  all  cases  argued  before  the  full 
bench  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  chief  justice  must 
be  one  of  the  majority  deciding.  If  he  cannot  agree 
with  his  brethren  on  the  bench,  there  is  no  decision. 
This  seems  to  be  required  by  the  worth  and  honor  of 


36  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

the  post  of  chief  justice.  So  eminent  an  officer  of 
the  government  ought  not  to  be  subjected  to  the  hu- 
miliation of  having  to  bear  the  blame  and  obloquy  of 
a  judgment,  not  only  constitutionally,  but  morally 
wrong,  and  which  he  may  strongly  condemn.  By  him 
the  supreme  law  of  the  country  is  supposed  to  speak. 
His  voice  should  certainly  represent  his  own  consent- 
ing: conviction. 


CHAPTER    III 


THE    BRITISH    PARLIAMENT. 


Mr.  Disraeli,  on  the  death  of  Richard  Cobden, 
spoke  in  a  spirit  of  generous  and  grateful  honor  to  the 
name  of  a  political  opponent,  and  to  his  surviving  in- 
fluence, when  he  said  that  "some  men  are  perpetual 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons."  By  so  speaking, 
he  not  only  paid  a  noble  and  just  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  an  illustrious  man,  but  he  recognized  a  great  truth. 
It  was  well  for  him,  who  represented  the  party  of  con- 
servative Englishmen,  —  a  party  on  whose  record  are 
some  of  the  noblest  instances  of  courage  in  defending 
right,  and  of  equally  noble  fortitude  in  enduring  wrong, 
that  the  world  can  show, —  to  honor  the  name  of  Richard 
Cobden,  who  was  not  a  demagogue  or  a  destructive, 
but  a  wise,  upright,  far-seeing,  high-toned  Christian 
gentleman  and  statesman  ;  none  the  less,  but  all  the 
more  a  statesman  because,  earnest  patriot  as  he  was, 
he  regarded  the  British  Empire  as  one  member,  and 
one  only,  of  the  great  commonwealth  of  nations. 

Richard  Cobden's  great  offence  "  hath  this  extent,  no 
more,"  that  he  believed  it  to  be  unjust  and  unfair,  as  it 
was  unjust  and  unfair,  that  the  British  Empire  should 


38  THE    AMERICAN    STATE, 

desire  or  claim  free-trade  or  a  nominal  tariff  in  foreign 
countries  for  the  sale  of  British  goods,  while  refusing 
to  foreign  countries  free-trade  or  a  nominal  tariff  for 
the  sale  of  grain.  For  the  truth  contained  in  these  two 
statements,  which  to  every  candid  man  seem  like  the 
two  ends  of  an  identical  proposition,  Richard  Cobden 
was  denounced  and  vilified  in  a  way  seldom  equalled  in 
human  history.  I  have  alluded  to  Richard  Cobden's 
great  work  in  life,  regarding  him  as  a  statesman.  Of 
course  his  noble  efforts  had  a  higher  inspiration  and  a 
deeper  foundation  than  policy.  He  strove  to  keep  up 
the  poor  that  were  up,  and  to  lift  up  the  poor  that  were 
down.  Time  will  vindicate  him  !  Ay,  before  he  died, 
his  wisdom,  humanity,  and  patriotism  were  triumphantly 
vindicated.  I  cannot  recall  anything  nobler  in  English 
Parliamentary  history  than  when  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in 
the  very  last  hour  of  his  holding  office,  as  truly  as  gen- 
erously placed  the  laurel-wreath  of  victory  upon  the 
brow  of  Richard  Cobden. 

A  British  legislator  may  take  a  just  pride  in  being 
one  of  the  great  succession  of  members  of  the  British 
Parliament,  —  a  body  which,  though  its  sessions  may  be 
newly  summoned,  prorogued,  or  dissolved,  has,  never- 
theless, an  enduring  historical  life,  as,  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  crown,  a  perpetual  source  of  law  for  the 
British  Empire.  Though  there  is  much  in  the  history 
of  that  Parliament  which,  if  not  every  human  being, 
certainly  every  one  humane,  could  wish  had  never  been, 
yet,  after  all  drawbacks  and  qualifications,  the  British 


THE    BRITISH    PARLIAMENT.  39 

Parliament  retains,  as  age  after  age  adds  to  its  solidity 
and  worth,  a  grandeur  which  wins  the  respect  of  the 
world.  There  is  hardly  an  acre  of  ground  on  the  globe 
that  has  not  felt  the  hand  of  the  British  Parliament. 
There  is  hardly  a  man  of  the  millions  who  have  lived 
and  died  since  the  British  Parliament  began,  that  has 
not  felt  in  some  way,  for  good  or  for  ill,  the  power  of 
that  assembly,  where  the  legislation  of  one  of  the  most 
powerful  dominions,  while  it  concerns  interests  that 
reach  all  round  the  globe,  is  conducted  generally  in  the 
calm,  quiet,  conversational  tone  of  the  drawing-room, 
and  where  the  boisterous  rhapsodies  of  an  American 
town-meeting  about  a  new  road  or  a  new  school-house 
would  not  be  tolerated  for  an  instant.  Eloquence  of 
great  power  and  splendor  has  been  heard  at  times  in 
the  British  Parliament ;  and  it  always  impresses,  because 
it  never  comes  without  a  just  occasion.  It  controls, 
because  it  is  itself  controlled  by  some  great  motive. 
It  inspires,  because  itself  obeys  an  inspiration. 

The  British  Parliament  is  a  noble  ship  which  for 
centuries  has  battled  with  many  a  storm  and  has  lived 
through  many  a  hurricane.  It  is  built  of  true  live-oak. 
It  has  been  in  danger  of  being  wrecked  on  the  rocks 
of  despotic  power,  and  of  being  swallowed  up  by  the 
quicksands  of  popular  caprice.  Its  sails  have  been 
blown  away.  Its  masts  have  been  broken,  and  have 
fallen  over,  with  all  their  tangled  rigging  into  the  open 
sea  ;  her  compass  has  sometimes  failed  to  answer  the 
authority  by  which  alone  she   bears  the  treasure  of 


40  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

British  law  ;  and  her  rudder  has  sometimes  failed  to 
obey  the  hand  of  some  strong,  heroic  helmsman  lashed 
to  the  wheel,  and  determined  to  be  true  to  his  trust 
while  there  was  a  foot  of  deck  on  which  to  stand  or  a 
foot  of  canvas  to  feel  the  gale. 

Most  of  the  crew  of  the  grand  old  ship  once  rose  in 
mutiny,  put  under  the  hatches  every  man  who  would 
not  join  in  the  insurrection,  and  made  a  piratical  attack 
upon  the  royal  barge  before  her,  which  bore  alike  the 
jewelled  crown  of  England  and  him  who  wore  it ;  who, 
with  all  his  faults,  was  "  more  sinned  against  than 
sinning."  The  mutineers  boarded  the  royal  barge, 
stained  its  deck  and  their  own  hands  and  souls  with 
royal  blood,  and  put  the  leader  of  the  mutinous  and 
murderous  band  in  the  place  of  the  slaughtered  king ; 
but  they  dared  not  put  the  insulted  crown  of  England 
on  the  bloody  pirate's  branded  brow.  The  ruler  of  the 
pirates  wielded  his  power  with  a  cruelty  and  tyranny 
of  which  the  murdered  sovereign  never  dreamed,  and 
with  which  he  was  never  charged  by  his  worst  enemies. 
Soon,  in  his  rage  at  being  baffled  in  his  design  to  make 
all  who  spoke  the  English  language  his  abject  slaves, 
the  chief  marauder  ran  both  ships  ashore,  while  the 
flag  of  England  which  floated  over  him  blushed  a 
deeper  red  at  his  unhallowed  crimes.  Both  ships  came 
near  breaking  into  pieces.  But  the  tide  of  loyalty  rose 
again;  again  the  royal  barge  of  England  and  the  old 
Parliament  ship  floated  on  the  waves  ;  and  now  they 
float,  in  harmony  and  peace ;  and  long,  long,  long  may 


THE    BRITISH    PARLIAMENT.  4I 

they  do  so  !  Long  may  the  diadem  of  England  flash 
around  the  world,  the  gemmed  symbol  of  true  and  firm 
authority !  Long  may  the  Red  Cross  banner  of  Eng- 
land wave,  untorn,  undimmed,  above  its  island  home 
and  over  Indian  shores  and  seas  !  Long  may  the  live- 
oak  of  the  British  Parliament  bear  safely  on  the  beating 
sea  the  precious  freight  of  a  noble  empire's  law  ! 


CHAPTER    IV 


THE   AMERICAN   CONGRESS. 


The  man  who  regards  his  election  to  Congress  as  a 
successful  political  trick,  as  a  way  to  make  hay  while  the 
sun  shines  for  himself  and  all  his  hungry  neighbors,  has 
no  conception  of  the  nobleness  of  his  trust  ;  but  he, 
whether  senator  or  representative,  who  has  a  right  view 
of  the  meaning  and  honor  of  his  office,  may  feel  a  noble 
incentive  in  deeming  himself,  not  only  a  member  of 
the  Congress  to  which  he  has  been  chosen,  but  a  member 
of  the  greater,  the  historical  Congress,  including  all  the 
rest  which  have  met  since  the  country  was  born.  He 
will  even  seem  to  go  back  in  imagination,  and  take  a  per- 
sonal share  in  the  momentous  debates  which  were  calm- 
ly but  surely  convprging  to  the  point  of  independence. 
He  will  seem  to  be  present  when  the  deed  was  done, 
and  to  feel  its  fearful  but  glorious  responsibility.  The 
blazing  words  of  Patrick  Henry  will  keep  bright  the 
flame  of  his  heart,  and  kindle  it  anew,  if  it  seems  to 
languish  and  flicker.  When  he  hears  the  words  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  always  directly  to  the  point, 
charged,  like  electric  jars,  with  unfailing  faith  and  cour- 
age, he  will  be  strangely  invigorated  and   revived,  as 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS,  43 

though  the  philosopher,  patriot,  and  statesman  had  in- 
deed drawn  the  very  hghtning  of  heaven,  to  electrify 
his  own  soul  and  the  souls  of  his  fellow-members,  to 
hold  on  and  to  hold  out,  undaunted,  unflinching,  undis- 
mayed. Under  the  rough  speech  of  John  Adams,  im- 
pulsive and  impetuous  but  profoundly  wise,  he  will 
recognize,  with  a  companion's  personal  pride,  the  true 
gold  which  stands  every  test.  He  will  feel  the  beating 
of  the  warm  and  noble  heart  behind  the  calm  reserve  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  who  may  have  erred  at  times  as  a 
statesman,  but  who  never  failed  or  faltered  for  an  in- 
stant as  a  patriot,  and  whose  sterling  merits  as  a  man 
were  not  consumed  but  purified  by  the  fiery  furnace  of 
political  rage.  As  he  admires  the  brave  souls  of  the 
early  sufferers  for  the  faith,  who  never  quailed  an  in- 
stant or  an  inch  when  the  fierce,  fearful  cry  arose,  "  The 
Christians  to  the  lions ! "  so  will  he  be  nerved  to  new 
sacrifices  and  devotion  when  he  sees  Charles  Carroll 
sign  his  name  to  the  immortal  Declaration,  and  add  "  of 
Carrolton,"  not  from  aristocratic  pride,  but  on  purpose 
to  signify  that,  if  one  of  his  name  was  wanted  to  join 
"  the  noble  army  of  martyrs  "  for  truth  and  right,  he 
was  the  man,  ready  to  stand  or  to  die,  to  go  to  the  lions, 
the  dungeon,  or  the  scaffold.  He  will  look  on  the  grand 
signature  of  John  Hancock  as  having  a  fourfold  char- 
acter, being  at  the  same  time  a  pledge,  a  prayer,  a  chal- 
lenge, and  a  patriotic  appeal. 

He  will   feel    the  pressure  of  doubt  and  fear  when 
battles  were  lost,  and  when  the  sufferings  of  the  army, 


44  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

which  could  not  be  relieved,  produced  as  keen  anguish 
in  the  Continental  Congress  as  in  the  camps  of  the 
soldiers.  He  will  take  his  share  in  the  terrible  weight 
of  sorrow  when  eloquence,  self-denial,  and  public  spirit 
ready  for  martyrdom  were  powerless  to  cover  the  bleed- 
ing feet  of  the  soldiers,  to  blunt  the  pointed  ice  in 
the  dreary  winter's  march,  or  to  tame  the  freezing, 
piercing  blast  ;  yet  he  will  also  be  moved  by  gratitude 
to  God  when  some  movement  of  the  genius  of  Wash- 
ington shows  that  the  cause  of  his  country  is  not  lost. 
He  will  share  in  the  faith  in  the  guiding  providence  of 
God  which  marked  that  suffering  and  struggling,  yet 
sublime  period, —  sublime  because  suffering  and  strug- 
gling ;  for  the  heroes  of  all  time  are  they  who,  however 
unlearned  in  human  science,  have  taken,  by  unswerving 
devotion  to  great,  undying  principles,  all  the  degrees  in 
the  great  university  of  sorrow,  trial,  toil,  and  victory,  — 
not  always  the  victory  which  flames  before  the  gaze 
of  man  from  the  page  of  history,  though  it  may  shine 
before  the  faces  of  angels  in  Heaven  from  the  eternal 
book  of  God.  He  \yill  feel  as  though  he  could  not  have 
borne  the  terrible  burdens  of  that  day,  if  faith  had  not 
sometimes  been  turned  to  sight ;  and  he  can  hardly 
help  believing  that,  at  intervals  in  the  great  struggle, 
the  veil  that  divides  the  seen  and  the  unseen  worlds  must 
have  been  withdrawn,  and  the  true  and  tried  patriots 
of  the  time,  serving  their  country  in  whatever  way, 
must  then  have  looked  at  the  hand  of  the  living  God, 
which  held  the  star  of  empire  before  the  little  fleet  of 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  45 

Columbus,  as  it  sailed  out  into  the  unknown  future  for 
the  unknown  shore,  yet  holding  that  star  in  the  bricjht 
blue  western  sky,  shining  clear  above  all  the  clouds  of 
doubt  and  all  the  smoke  of  war  ;  and  as  the  servant  of 
the  prophet  of  God  of  old,  dismayed  when  he  saw  the 
city  surrounded  with  horses  and  chariots  of  war,  was 
reassured  w^hen  the  prophet  prayed  that  the  eyes  of  his 
servant  might  be  opened,  and  they  were,  and,  "behold, 
the  mountain  was  full  of  horses  and  chariots  of  fire 
round  about  Elisha,"  —  so  will  all  the  spiritual  forces 
fighting  for  his  country  seem  to  take  visible  shape,  and 
he  will  see  "  round  about "  George  Washington,  and  his 
little  struggling  army  going  forth  to  meet  the  disci- 
plined ranks  of  the  most  powerful  dominion  upon  earth, 
an  aiding,  cheering  host,  leading,  attending  on  either 
side,  and  following,  all  arrayed  in  celestial,  invincible 
armor,  —  innumerable  squadrons  of  inspiring  hopes, 
vast,  thronging  battalions  of  urging  memories,  and, 
stronger  than  all,  countless  legions  of  striving  prayers. 
As  Congress  assumed  a  more  definite  shape  under 
the  Constitution,  he  will  be  more  and  more  drawn  to 
the  side  of  the  eminent  men  who  have  gone  before  him, 
and  yet  now  seem  to  be  near,  as  though  all  were  con- 
temporaries, moved  by  the  same  regard  for  the  highest 
good  of  their  country,  though  differing  often  and 
widely  as  to  the  ways  of  promoting  it.  The  American 
Congress  in  its  earlier  days  was  an  institution  for 
which  no  American  at  home  or  abroad  was  ever  obliged 
to  hang  his  head  in  shame.     In  no  legislative  assembly 


46  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

on  earth  was  there  a  higher  and  better  type  of  patri- 
otic self-devotion,  abihty,  and  energy.  The  Constitu- 
tion had  been  accepted  in  good  faith,  both  by  those 
who  saw  in  it  a  recognition  of  their  pohtical  theories 
and  by  those  who  did  not,  but  who,  nevertheless,  yielded 
as  patriots  and  statesmen,  believing  that  honor  required 
them  to  do  the  best  they  could  for  their  country,  and 
not  to  leave  civil  duties  undone  because  they  could  not 
be  done  in  all  respects  agreeably  to  preference  and  con- 
viction. Some  of  the  great  names  of  the  Revolutionary 
period  poured  living  sunshine  on  the  road  of  patriotic 
service  ;  and  the  shadow  of  others  not  long  departed 
yet  lingered  to  inspire  the  reverence  of  all,  and  to 
soothe  political  heat.  In  those  days  strong  and  true 
men  were  sent  to  Congress,  men  indeed  with  the  pas- 
sions, the  imperfections,  the  rivalries  of  other  men  ; 
but  Congress  was  not  then  as  now  the  purgatory  of 
statesmen  and  the  paradise  of  adventurers. 

As  time  went  on,  the  political  struggles  became  more 
vehement,  and  principles  and  policies  were  more  sharply 
defined,  yet  Congress  continued  to  be  the  intellectual 
focus  of  the  country.  Though  aristocratic  traditions 
and  usages  remained  in  great  force  in  many  parts  of  the 
land,  yet  they  succeeded  in  securing  for  the  country's 
service  men  who  honored  their  country,  and  whom 
their  country  could  safely  honor  for  their  ability  and 
worth,  irrespective  of  accidental  position  ;  while  real 
merit,  obscure  though  it  might  be,  and  without  ances- 
tral wealth  or  privilege,  was  earnestly  hailed,  honored, 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  4/ 

and  promoted,  as  it  is  not  now,  when  the  generous  and 
hearty  appreciation  of  native  worth  has  given  place  to 
a  democratic  hate  of  inborn  nobihty.  No  man  hates 
a  man  whose  gifts  are  the  gifts  of  God  so  bitterly 
•as  your  uproarious  democrat.  False  democracy  hisses 
at  worth  which  peers  are  proud  to  recognize,  and  which 
kings  delight  to  honor. 

Look  in  upon  the  Congress  of  a  later  day,  but  long 
before  what  it  now  is.  Hear  John  Randolph  utter  keen 
wit  and  wisdom  in  shrill  tones,  like  a  steam-whistle 
endowed  with  intelligence  and  speech  ;  or,  more  fre- 
quently, see  him  dash  about  the  field  of  Congress  with 
a  free  lance,  reckless  whom  or  where  he  attacks,  if  he 
but  sees  a  weak  point  in  some  cuirass,  some  unbarred 
helmet,  or  some  loosened  greave.  Yet  his  chivalric 
antics  were  generally  on  the  side  of  right.  If  one  such 
man  were  in  each  house  of  Congress  now,  he  would  be  an 
inestimable  blessing,  and  the  field  would  be  daily  strewn 
with  unhorsed  and  wounded  knights  of  profit  and  loss 
and  bargain  and  sale,  whose  thick  armor,  impenetrable 
to  the  hardest  blows  of  public  denunciation,  could  not 
always  resist  the  sharp,  quick  thrust  of  one  hke  John 
Randolph. 

Hear  Thomas  H.  Benton  maintain  with  vehement 
pertinacity  the  true  principles  of  mercantile  and  na- 
tional honor,  —  principles  easier  to  ridicule  and  de- 
nounce than  to  disprove  ;  and  one  cannot  help  wishing 
that  the  grand,  impulsive  Missourian  could  have  been 
permitted  by  the  will  of  God  to  live  till  now,  to  reassert, 


48  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

with  all  the  sanctions  of  patriarchal  age,  the  doctrines 
of  his  vigorous  manhood,  and  to  point  out  with  the 
fiery  indignation  of  his  nature  to  a  certain  august 
body  of  navigators  and  expounders  the  North  Star 
of  national  integrity,  which  never  sets,  but  which  the 
learned  navigators  forgot  to  look  at,  in  revising  the 
chart  to  guide  the  country's  honor. 

If  I  could  call  the  spirit  of  Thomas  H.  Benton  from 
the  immortal  world,  and  command  him  to  speak,  he 
could  utter  nothing  more  directly  suited  to  this  mo- 
ment than  these  vivid,  burning  words  from  his  speech 
on  the  "  Divorce  of  Bank  and  State,"  delivered  during 
the  extra  session  of  Congress  in  1837  :  — 

"  I  do  not  go  into  the  moral  view  of  this  question. 
It  is  too  obvious,  too  impressive,  too  grave,  to  escape 
the  observation  of  any  one.  Demoralization  follows  in 
the  train  of  an  inconvertible  paper-money.  The  whole 
community  becomes  exposed  to  a  moral  pestilence. 
Every  individual  becomes  the  victim  of  some  imposi- 
tion, and,  in  self-defence,  imposes  upon  some  one  else. 
The  weak,  the  ignorant,  the  uninformed,  the  necessi- 
tous, are  the  sufferers  ;  the  crafty  and  the  opulent  are 
the  gainers.  The  evil  augments  until  the  moral  sense 
of  the  community,  revolting  at  the  frightful  accumula- 
tion of  fraud  and  misery,  applies  the  radical  remedy  of 
total  reform." 

Then  may  be  seen  the  face  of  John  C.  Calhoun 
flash  upon  the  Senate  like  the  eyes  of  an  eagle.  The 
chief  advocate  of  State  rights  and  delegated  powers  it 


THE   AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  49 

is  the  fashion  to  brand  as  a  traitor  and  a  rebel  simply 
for  holding  what  views  he  did  respecting  the  Constitu- 
tion,—  but  very  unjustly,  for,  whether  those  views  were 
sound  or  not,  he  held  them,  not  only  as  his  own,  but 
as  the  representative  of  a  very  powerful  party,  in  whose 
ranks  were  some  of  the  most  ardent  patriots  of  the 
Revolution  and  of  the  time  after,  even  to  our  own  day  ; 
and,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  the  views  of  John  C.  Calhoun 
are  practically  held,  though  perhaps  they  would  be  in 
theory  denied,  by  a  very  large  portion  of  Northern 
men  at  this  moment,  and  by  men  too  who  stood  by 
the  government  of  the  country  through  the  war. 
John  C.  Calhoun  professed,  and  no  doubt  sincerely, 
to  find  the  remedy  for  grievances  in  the  Constitution 
and  under  the  authorized  government  of  the  country. 
His  views  may  have  been  wrong  ;  they  may  have  been 
narrow  ;  and  most  certainly  I  think  that,  however 
consistent  they  may  have  been  with  the  Constitution, 
they  were  both  wrong  and  narrow  as  regards  the  or- 
ganic principles  of  government ;  but,  if  John  C.  Cal- 
houn was  a  traitor  and  a  rebel  simply  for  holding  such 
views,  —  and  I  am  now  speaking  of  him  as  a  theorist, — 
then  Patrick  Henry  was  a  rebel  and  a  traitor,  for  he 
had  the  same  views  about  the  rights  of  the  States; 
and  a  large  proportion  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion were,  according  to  the  same  standard,  rebels  and 
traitors,  and  as  many  of  them,  probably,  from  the 
North  as  from  the  South, 

John  C.  Calhoun  had  the  high-toned  respect  for  him- 
3  D 


50  THE   AMERICAN    STATE. 

self  and  his  office  which  would  have  become  a  Roman 
senator ;  and,  notwithstanding  his  narrow  theories  of 
government,  he  towers  in  nobleness  inaccessible  by 
the  mean  and  sordid  creatures  who  enter  the  Senate, 
not  by  the  wide-open  door  of  manly  honor  and  merit, 
but  who  climb  into  it  over  the  fence,  like  sneaking 
robbers  as  they  are,  on  the  rails  of  bribery  and  cor- 
ruption. Better,  any  day  and  every  day,  to  hear  State 
rights  urged  by  men  without  the  stain  of  personal 
dishonor  on  their  souls,  than  to  see  hands  cursed  with 
offering  gold  for  office  extended  to  take  the  solemn 
senatorial  oath,  or  to  hear  the  praises  of  national 
unity  shouted  in  selfish,  grasping  hypocrisy  by  lips  that 
have  promised  dollars  for  place. 

The  genius  of  John  C.  Calhoun  was,  in  truth,  the 
most  costly  single  sacrifice  which  the  Dagon  of  Amer- 
ican slavery  ever  exacted  ;  but  it  must  be  granted  that 
men  who  abhorred  slavery  as  much  as  he  seemed  to 
approve  it,  were  as  firm  adherents  as  himself  to  his 
theory  of  the  government.  The  opinions  of  John  C. 
Calhoun  are  beacons  that  warn  off  the  dangerous  shore 
on  which  they  stand  ;  but  to  what  extent  they  are  sus- 
tained, and,  consequently,  how  far  the  danger  is  to  be 
traced  to  another  source,  are  questions  to  be  considered 
thoughtfully  and  deeply.  Did  Daniel  Webster  refute 
John  C.  Calhoun  ?  To  my  mind,  though  my  sympa- 
thies are  with  Webster,  that  is  an  open  question. 

The  denunciation  of  Calhoun  and  of  his  views  did 
not  put  down  him  or  them  during  his  life;  his  argii- 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  51 

rnents  are  yet  full  of  life  and  strength,  and  they  can 
never  be  met  and  answered  by  platitudes  or  abuse.  I 
dissent  from  his  views  and  protest  against  them  ;  but, 
whether  or  not  he  was  justified  in  holding  them  as 
logical  constructions  and  interpretations  is  a  serious 
and,  some  will  think,  a  dangerous  question  ;  yet  that 
question,  dangerous  or  not,  I  shall  in  due  time  try  to 
answer.  For  the  present  let  me  say,  that  the  man  who 
does  not  feel  the  intellectual  fascination  of  the  writings 
of  Mr.  Calhoun,  even  while  dissenting  and  protesting  a 
dozen  times  in  reading  every  page,  had  better  betake 
himself  to  Artemas  Ward  and  the  whole  litter  of  liter- 
ary clowns,  clerical  and  lay,  whose  writings,  daubed 
with  red  ochre  and  bright  with  brass  spangles,  Amer- 
ica offers  in  sober  earnest  as  her  contribution  to  the 
literature  of  the  world. 

I  have  spoken  the  name  of  Daniel  Webster.  Behold 
his  majestic  presence,  as  he  rises  in  the  Senate.  His 
words  are  simple,  yet  massive  like  himself,  and  sym- 
metrical, as  though  they  had  been  chiselled  by  Grecian 
art  out  of  Grecian  marble.  When  combined  they  have 
an  architectural  grandeur.  Daniel  Webster  was  the 
greatest  intellectual  gift  of  Almighty  God  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  New  World.  His  fame  stands  on  the 
mountain  of  his  country's  renown,  seen  afar  and  tow- 
ering high,  like  the  monument  on  Bunker  Hill,  at  the 
laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  which  he  addressed  his 
countrymen  with  impressive  wisdom,  and  at  the  com- 
pletion of  which  he  renewed,  on  the  same  spot,  the 


52  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

noble  strain,  like  some  inspiring,  patriotic  anthem 
which  filled  the  air  with  sonorous  melody.  Daniel 
Webster's  fame  will  stand  while  that  'monument  shall 
stand  ;  and  when  that  monument  shall  have  become 
a  ruin,  the  fame  of  Daniel  Webster  will  have  floated 
over  the  ocean  of  centuries,  and  will  be  recalled  and 
honored  by  the  scholar,  the  patriot,  and  the'  statesman 
of  future  ages,  as  now  the  traveller  among  the  ruins 
of  Athens  looks  about  him  and  says,  "  Here  stood 
Demosthenes  ;  those  crumbling  columns,  then  rising 
in  regular  form  and  beauty,  echoed  his  words  ;  yonder 
sea  swelled  the  refrain  of  his  resounding  periods  ;  and 
yonder  sun,  with  his  illuming  light,  answered  the  flam- 
ing lips  of  the  orator." 

Daniel  Webster  could  not  be  President.  There  were 
two  fatal  objections  to  him.  He  was  a  great  man,  and 
that  was  a  strong  reason  why  he  should  be  put  down 
and  kept  down.  He  had  deserved  well  of  his  country, 
and  that  was  a  yet  stronger  reason  why  he  should 
be  put  down  and  kept  down.  In  all  countries  except 
America  great  men  are  regarded  as  special  gifts  of 
God.  In  America  great  men  arc  regarded  as  curses, 
not  as  blessings.  Their  greatness  is  deemed  an  intol- 
erable injury  to  everybody  else  in  the  land.  They  are 
endured  while  in  lowly  station  they  work  hard  and 
long  for  the  welfare  of  their  country,  provided  that 
they  know  and  keep  their  place  as  very  humble  ser- 
vants. If  they  dare  to  think,  speak,  or  act  according 
to   the   light   and   power  with  which  they  hive   been 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  53 

endowed  by  the  God  of  heaven,  they  forfeit  their 
character  for  docihty,  and  must  in  some  way  be  chained, 
cowed,  or  crushed  into  submission,  and  never  again 
dare  to  have  a  mind  of  their  own.  If  there  are  any 
more  abject  slaves  to  any  single  despot  on  earth  than 
American  statesmen,  thinkers,  and  scholars  are  to  pop- 
ular tyranny,  point  them  out  to  the  surprise  and  won- 
der of  all  mankind  !  America  is  not  yet  out  of  the 
woods.  It  is  too  soon  for  her  to  boast  that  political 
and  intellectual  guides  are  useless  and  cumbersome, 
and  belong  to  a  bygone  order  of  civihzation.  From 
the  beginning  of  time  it  has  been,  and  to  the  end  of 
time  it  will  be,  true  that  to  do  anything  permanently 
good,  great,  and  glorious  on  earth  demands  some  kind 
of  personal  guidance,  inspiration,  or  power.  Undi- 
rected aggregations  of  men  never  yet  did  anything  but 
quarrel  and  stumble,  and  never  will. 

In  America  the  noblest  qualities  of  statesmanship, 
the  most  patient,  persistent,  patriotic  labors  through 
good  report  and  ill,  through  contumely  and  detraction, 
through  struggles  and  defeats  on  the  way  to  final  vic- 
tory, constitute  the  very  highest  claim  to  be  set  aside 
by  the  omnipotent  will  of  the  people.  America  says 
to  her  statesmen,  "  Be  faithful  in  the  day  of  trial,  con- 
flict, and  danger,  and  then,  in  the  day  of  success,  you 
shall  be  sure  to  lose  your  reward.  Serve  your  country 
with  a  martyr's  courage  and  constancy,  and  you  shall 
win  a  martyr's  crown  of  disappointment  and  death, 
thick  set  with  piercing  thorns."     The  mind  of  Daniel 


54  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

Webster  was  brighter  than  a  prince's  crown.  His 
greatness  depended  on  no  circumstances.  It  was  in- 
trinsic and  indestructible.  The  voice  of  the  people 
is  not  always  the  voice  of  God,  not  always  even  the 
voice  of  history.  The  court  of  history  is  always  in 
session,  making  up  judgments  in  the  present  to  be 
handed  on  for  expression  in  the  future.  That  judg- 
ment, there  is  little  doubt,  has  been  formed  in  the  case 
of  Daniel  Webster  ;  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  it  is, 
that  Daniel  Webster,  by  the  prerogatives  given  him  by 
Almighty  God,  stood  nobly  and  grandly  pre-eminent 
above  all  the  royal  or  republican  rulers  of  his  time ; 
or,  as  it  may  be  expressed  in  the  words  of  the  sa- 
cred writer,  "  Then  this  Daniel  was  preferred  above 
the  presidents  and  princes,  because  an  excellent  spirit 
was  in  him." 

Daniel  Webster  sleeps,  as  he  ought,  by  the  sounding, 
the  eloquent  sea.  The  roar  of  the  broad  Atlantic  is 
his  sublime,  fitting,  unceasing  requiem.  Every  coming 
tide  brings  some  new  tribute  of  honor  to  his  tomb, 
and  every  ebbing  wave  bears  to  other  shores  some  new 
memorial  of  his  fame. 

Hark !  through  the  charmed  hall  reverberates  the 
voice  of  Henry  Clay,  invigorating  and  inspiring  as  the 
fresh  air  of  the  mountains,  while  "  musical  as  is  Apol- 
lo's lute"  the  voice  of  Henry  Clay,  which  seemed  to 
have  a  magical  power,  not  only  to  adorn  the  loftiest 
themes  of  the  statesman  with  a  new  interest,  but  to 
endow  the  driest  details    with   living   beauty,  and   to 


THE    AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  55 

make  columns  of  figures  glow  with  attractive  grace  like 
Corinthian  pillars  ;  yet  the  voice  of  Henry  Clay,  pow- 
erful as  it  was,  had  one  successful  rival  in  winning  the 
hearts  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  strong  men,  and 
that  rival  was  the  manly,  chivalric,  patriotic  soul  of 
Henry  Clay,  which  nothing  could  intimidate,  darken, 
or  crush  ;  which  even  above  the  shadow  of  defeat  shone 
with  a  power  unsubdued,  triumphant  over  the  failure 
of  hope,  and  glowing  with  more  intensity  and  splendor 
than  ever.  No  national  ingratitude  could  quench  that 
patriotic  flame,  for  it  burned  on,  and  brightly  burned, 
until  his  lamp  of  life  went  out ;  "and  even  in  his  ashes 
live  their  wonted  fires." 

Go  again  to  the  other  side  of  the  Capitol,  and  stand 
like  one  bewildered  with  enchantment,  as  the  corusca- 
tions of  the  genius  of  Prentiss  play  and  sparkle  around 
you  like  a  meteoric  shower  of  "  thoughts  that  breathe, 
and  words  that  burn."  And  now,  stand  in  awe,  as 
though  in  the  presence  of  one  of  the  ancient  prophets 
of  God,  who  would  make  known  eternal  truth  and 
thunder  the  warnings  of  Jehovah,  undaunted  by  threats  ; 
who,  though  in  chains,  would  declare  the  inalienable 
rights  of  God  ;  and  who,  though  confined  in  a  dungeon, 
would  "proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives  and  the  opening 
of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound  "  :  for  look  !  John 
Quincy  Adams  rises,  defying  defiance,  with  a  heart 
that  never  quailed  and  with  a  will  that  never  quaked  ; 
with  a  hand,  indeed,  that  sometimes  trembled,  though 
not  with  fear,  but  because,  even   in  old  age,  it  shook 


56  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

before  the  faces  of  tyranny  and  wrong  the  gleaming 
thunderbolts  of  retribution  ;  with  a  voice,  indeed,  that 
sometimes  trembled,  though  not  with  terror  «r  doubt, 
but  because  it  flashed  in  rebuke  before  the  guilty  defend- 
ers of  injustice  like  a  quivering  flame  of  celestial  fire. 

Could  I  call  the  roll  of  the  silent  Congress  of  the 
dead,  and  could  they  come  at  my  call,  should  I  fail  to 
note,  as  goes  the  pale  procession  by,  on  many  a  shad- 
owy face  some  shadowy  signs  of  sorrow  for  deeds  that 
cannot  be  undone,  for  words  that  cannot  be  unsaid  ? 
Would  those  lips  pallid  from  another  world  now  say 
one  word  for  slavery,  or  for  any  of  the  wrongs  and 
cruelties  of  time  ?  Now  flits  a  ghastly  shade  that 
once  in  mortal  form,  for  words  of  warm  debate,  laid 
out  his  comrade  cold.  Would  he  repeat  the  deed  ? 
How,  as  in  a  dread  eclipse,  those  moving  figures  pace 
through  old  familiar  corridors  and  new,  through  old 
familiar  walks  and  new,  up  and  down  old  familiar  steps 
and  new  !  The  sound  of  clanking  chains  the  shudder- 
ing shadows  hear,  and  deeper  grows  their  anxious  pal- 
lor, for  chains  like  those  in  life  they  riveted  anew  with 
bolts  of  bitter  speech,  in  slavery's  behalf,  on  limbs  and 
souls  of  men.  Would  they  now  do  it,  or  praise  its 
being  done  ?  Speak  !  speak  !  Are  you  forgiven  ?  Do 
your  souls  rest  in  peace  ?  Hark !  no  sound  replies. 
Silently,  sadly  on,  sadly,  silently  on,  with  downcast 
faces,  the  troubled  shadows  go  into  a  deeper  shade. 
Yet  others  come,  silent,  yet  hearing  all.  Their  shad- 
owy forms  pace,  like  the  rest,  through  old  familiar  cor- 


THE   AMERICAN    CONGRESS.  5/ 

ridors  and  new,  through  old  famihar  walks  and  new, 
up  and  down  old  familiar  steps  and  new.  As  they  go, 
a  gentle  radiance  attends,  until  their  faces,  pale  in 
death,  shine  with  a  living  light ;  and  halls  and  grounds 
are  brightened  by  their  illumined  forms.  It  is  the 
light  that  never  fades  from  words  and  deeds  for  truth, 
for  right,  for  God.  It  is  the  light  which  goes  before, 
like  Heaven's  announcing  herald.  It  is  the  light  that 
follows  on,  like  Heaven's  rewarding  fame.  They  also 
hear  the  sound  of  clanking  chains  ;  and,  at  the  sound, 
a  flush  of  joy  like  that  of  life  spreads  over  every  face, 
and  like  soft  music  memories  come  of  brave  words  said, 
long  years  before,  defying  threats  of  death,  to  strike 
such  dreary  chains  from  limbs  and  souls  of  men.  So, 
silently,  joyously  on,  joyously,  silently  on,  the  shadowy 
shapes  proceed,  until  they  fade  from  view  into  eternal 
liffht. 


3* 


CHAPTER  V. 

CHRISTIANITY   THE    INSPIRER   OF   NATIONS. 

The  strongest  men  of  history  are  they  who  in  the 
face  of  scorn  have  believed,  and  in  the  face  of  enmity 
have  acted  on  the  belief,  that  the  Christian  faith  is  the 
well  of  deepest  wisdom,  as  truly  as  the  dayspring  of 
immortal  hope.  Professor  Greenleaf,  when  he  put  a 
copy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  into  the  Law  Library  at 
Cambridge,  as  the  first  and  best  of  law-books,  acted 
not  only  like  a  Christian,  but  like  a  man  of  sense. 
What  are  laws  that  are  not  founded  on  the  law  of 
God  ?  What  is  their  power,  what  is  their  claim  to  be 
obeyed  ?  There  have  been  Christian  rulers,  states- 
men, legislators,  soldiers,  whose  fame  will  never  fall, 
for  it  was  founded,  not  on  the  quicksands  of  popular 
applause,  not  on  the  marshes  of  transient  policy,  but 
on  a  rock,  —  the  Rock  of  Ages.  There  have  been 
Christian  kings  on  powerful  thrones,  who  have  served 
their  God  in  the  spirit  of  a  little  child,  and  who  have 
served  their  country  with  a  lion's  strength  and  courage. 
There  have  been  Christian  statesmen,  who  have  held 
with  steady  hand  the  helm,  to  guide  their  country 
through  blazing  seas  of  bellowing  war,  who,  for  their 


CHRISTIANITY    THE    INSPIRER    OF    NATIONS.  59 

country's  life  or  honor,  have  stood  and  looked  the  yell- 
ing powers  of  darkness  in  the  face,  unflinching  and 
defiant,  yet  who  have  humbly  bowed  the  head  and  bent 
the  knee,  when  out  of  oracles  divine  came  the  clear 
voice,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  thy  God.  There  have 
been  Christian  legislators  whom  no  wealth  or  power 
could  hire  to  put  an  unjust  law  into  a  nation's  code, 
and  who,  .were  it  in  without  a  fault  of  theirs,  would 
work  with  a  hero's  might  and  with  a  martyr's  zeal, 
though  under  threats  of  the  dagger  or  the  dungeon,  to 
tear  it  out  and  tear  it  up,  and  send  its  fragments  spin- 
ning in  the  air,  like  dry,  scared  leaves  of  autumn  ;  yet 
who,  while  strenuous  and  severe  for  righteous  laws 
and  against  unrighteous  ones,  would  kneel  with  the 
publican's  contrition  to  own  their  faults  before  the 
altar  of  their  forgiving  God.  There  have  been  Chris- 
tian soldiers  who,  having  made  their  peace  with  God, 
have  dared  to  make  war  with  hell  and  its  fierce  sub- 
alterns here  on  earth,  —  soldiers  of  the  sword  or  of  the 
pen  or  of  the  living  voice,  who,  in  defending  right 
or  in  storming  the  citadel  of  wrong,  have  faced  the 
cannon's  mouth  or  the  blasting  throats  of  obloquy  and 
hate,  —  Christian  soldiers,  who  have  feared  nothing  in 
mortal  shape  except  a  mortal  sin,  and  who,  though 
daring  all  true  heroes  can,  would  have  been  ground 
to  powder,  torn  in  pieces,  or  blown  to  atoms,  before 
they  would  have  dared  to  be  disloyal  to  the  King  of 
kings. 

Thanks  be   to   God,   there  have  been  such  men   as 


60  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

those  in  our  own  land  ;  there  are  now.  They  may  be 
overborne  by  throngs  of  the  adorers  of  mammon  or  of 
self,  but  they  are  here.  Their  influence  has  at  times 
been  i^lt ;  it  will  be  so  again  and  to  a  greater  degree. 
When  once  the  tide  of  American  materialism  shall 
turn,  the  noble  things  which  are  now  in  the  dust,  and 
the  base  things  that  are  now  uppermost,  will  change 
places  ;  and  our  country  will  begin  to  be  what  she 
was  evidently  designed  to  be.  Even  in  Congress  there 
have  been,  there  are  now,  men  of  lofty  purpose,  of 
patriotic  integrity,  of  thoughtful  wisdom,  of  Christian 
principle.  They  have  been  honored  deeply,  if  not 
widely.  They  have  shown  in  their  lives  that  the  more 
true  a  man  is  to  God,  the  more  true  he  will  be  to  his 
country  ;  and  some  of  them  who  have  gone  hence  have 
shown  that  public  service  faithfully  performed  may 
brighten  the  shadow  of  death.  I  recall  the  account 
of  the  death  of  a  senator  which  impressed  thousands 
by  its  beauty.  He  was  a  Christian  believer,  and  in  his 
very  last  moments  he  seemed  to  see  and  to  hail  with 
ecstasy  the  eternal  city  of  God.  It  may  have  been  the 
illusion  of  disease  ;  it  may  have  been  the  delirium  of 
dissolution  ;  but  may  it  not  sometimes  be  that,  before 
the  eyes  quite  fail  to  see  or  the  lips  to  speak,  dawning 
immortality  may  send  a  ray  across  the  barrier  of  death.? 
May  it  not  sometimes  be  that  the  soul,  after  life's  duty 
nobly  done,  departing  in  Christian  faith  and  fear,  may 
at  the  last  mortal  moment  see  and  greet  its  heavenly 
home  with  the  rapture  of  the  loving  child,  who,  after 


CHRISTIANITY    THE    INSPIRER    OF    NATIONS.  6 1 

being  absent  long,  catches  a  glimpse,  at  closing  day, 
through  darkening  woods  and  deepening  mist,  of  the 
cheering  light  which  shines  in  welcome  from  his  father's 
house  ?  If  such  a  thing  can  be,  who  would  not  rather 
die  a  death  like  that,  than  to  call  his,  or  to  leave  to  his 
heirs,  all  the  royal  diadems  that  were  ever  worn  by 
mortal  kings  ? 

Nations  avowedly  Christian  develop  a  nobler  kind 
of  manhood  than  those  which  acknowledge  nothing, 
as  nations,  to  revere  beyond  their  own  greatness  and 
glory.  These  last  may  be  as  patriotically,  as  bravely 
defended  in  peril  as  the  first ;  but  in  nations  that  have 
for  ages  professed  the  faith  of  Christendom,  patriotism 
and  bravery  are  marked  by  a  chiyalric  reverence,  which 
is  not  so  much  a  personal  quality  as  a  diffused  influ- 
ence, of  which  they  partake  as  of  the  air  and  of  the 
sunshine  ;  a  characteristic  which  seems  rather  a  gift 
than  an  acquisition,  which,  where  it  exists  most  plainly 
and  largely,  exists  the  most  unconsciously,  and  so  is 
the  more  attractive  charm.  This  characteristic  may  at 
times  be  found  in  countries  that  do  not  profess  Chris- 
tianity :  but,  in  such  cases,  it  exists  as  an  exception  and 
as  an  exotic,  rather  than  as  a  native  of  the  soil ;  just  as 
sometimes  a  man,  who  has  rapidly  though  honorably 
acquired  wealth,  may  neither  feel  nor  show  the  usual 
marks  of  new  riches  ;  or  just  as  a  laborer  in  the  mills 
or  in  the  mines  may  have  and  reveal  the  inborn  quali- 
ties of  the  gentleman,  though  he  can  point  to  no  coat 
of  arms  for  thirty  or  for  three  generations,  and  has  no 


62  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

Other  title  of  nobility  than  a  true,  a  brave,  a  manly 
heart,  —  Heaven's  own  heraldic  sign. 

To  develop  this  peculiar  reverence  of  which  I  speak, 
it  is  not  enough  that  a  people  should  be  Christian,  for 
it  is  the  growth  of  centuries  of  association  of  Christian 
truth  with  the  national  life  in  all  its  forms  and  ways, 
with  social  customs,  names,  places,  traditions,  legends, 
with  the  daily  music  of  chants  hallowed  by  ages  of  use, 
with  the  daily  sight  of  grand  cathedrals.  These  Chris- 
tian memories,  influences,  and  usages,  interwoven  with 
the  national  character  and  with  the  affections  of  the 
people,  are  among  the  causes,  apart  from  the  direct 
hand  of  God,  which  have  prevented  any  nation  which 
ever  professed  Christianity  from  ever  losing  it  for  a 
long  time,  unless  it  has  been  conquered  by  the  enemies 
of  the  faith  ;  and  even  then  the  hearts  of  the  people 
have  remained  inflexibly  loyal  to  their  dishonored  faith. 
It  is  this  habit  of  Christian  reverence  which  makes 
patriotism  a  kind  of  sacred  devotion,  and  which  gives 
a  kind  of  sanctity  to  courage. 

Who  can  measure  the  power  which  the  cathedrals 
of  France  may  have  had  in  bringing  her  back  to  her 
Christian  loyalty,  when,  in  a  wild  hour,  so  many  of  her 
people,  but  not  all,  broke  away  from  the  altar  and  the 
throne  .-•  If  those  cathedrals  were  impressive  before, 
as  they  rose  in  stately  grandeur,  how  much  more  im- 
pressive were  they  when  they  seemed  to  stand  in  still, 
majestic  sorrow,  while  the  surges  of  popular  frenzy  beat 
against  their  sacred  walls  in  vain,  and  while  every  arch 


CHRISTIANITY    THE    INSPIRER    OF    NATIONS.  63 

and  scroll  and  sculptured  figure,  and  over  all  the  shin- 
ing cross,  seemed  to  warn  and  to  appeal  and  to  bless 
while  warning  and  appealing ! 

In  Christian  countries,  hypocrisy,  wrong,  sin,  injus- 
tice, and  deceit  may  be  found,  as  in  other  lands,  and 
they  may  have  high  place  and  power.  Nothing  of  this 
is  meant  to  be  denied.  All  that  is  asserted  is,  that  in 
avowedly  Christian  nations  nobleness  of  character  has 
a  nobleness  above  itself,  that  comes  from  ages  of  the 
blending  of  the  Christian  faith  with  the  national  life. 

In  our  own  country,  probably,  there  have  been  and 
are  as  beautiful  Christian  exemplars  as  anywhere  can  be 
found;  but  they  exist  apart  and  isolated,  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  spirit  of  the  government,  with  the  spirit 
of  the  country,  with  the  spirit  of  the  people,  with  the 
institutions  and  influences  about  them.  Christianity  as 
a  positive  power  is  not  interwoven  with  our  national 
history,  but  seems  something  away  from  it  and  beyond 
it ;  whereas  the  Christian  faith,  when  intimately  united 
with  the  national  life,  imparts  to  that  national  life  some 
of  its  own  sublimity,  and  is  also  brought  more  directly 
to  the  hearts,  homes,  walks,  and  works  of  the  people, 
becoming  no  less  than  before,  but  rather  more,  the 
angel  of  God,  because  going  about  among  men,  their 
best  daily  helper,  defender,  and  consoler,  as  truly  as 
the  surest  guide  of  nations. 

No  doubt,  our  country  should  be  plainly,  directly,  and 
avowedly  a  Christian  land.  A  godless  nation  jars  the 
moral  order  of  the  universe  more  than  a  godless  man. 


64  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

Multitudes  of  Christian  men  keep  aloof  from  their  plain 
duties  as  citizens,  because  they  have  no  faith  in  politics 
or  politicians  ;  but  if  they  wait  until  their  country  is 
a  Christian  country  before  they  take  their  part,  as 
far  as  they  can,  in  civil  affairs,  how  soon  will  it  be  one  ? 
It  is  going  farther  and  farther  every  day  from  the  ideal 
of  a  Christian  state.  If  Christians  have  little  faith  in 
politicians,  politicians  have  less  faith  in  them,  —  and 
why  ?  Because  they  judge  of  faith  by  works.  If  they 
see  Christian  men  indifferent  to  their  countr}',  doing 
nothing  to  make  it  what  they  know  it  ought  to  be,  why 
should  they  try  to  supply  the  want .''  If  the  men  of 
Israel  will  not  rescue  the  ark  of  God,  why  should  the 
Philistines  care  ?  The  politicians  know  too  much  to 
fight  against  themselves.  They  know  that  when  our 
country  shall  become  a  truly  Christian  land,  their  occu- 
pation will  be  gone.  Unless  restrained,  they  will  con- 
tinue to  rule  with  an  iron  will  and  an  iron  hand  until 
the  word  "  American,"  which  ought  to  be  a  clarion  of 
inspiration  for  all  noble  things  throughout  the  earth, 
shall  be  everywhere  the  synonyme  of  all  that  is  abomi- 
nable, grovelling,  degrading,  and  accursed. 

I  do  not  mean  that  we  are  to  have  a  religion  insti- 
tuted by  the  state,  a  manufactured  creed,  which  the 
government  is  to  fit  to  every  man's  conscience  with 
tailor's  shears.  I  am  pleading  for  the  recognition  by 
the  government  as  a  government,  and  by  the  nation  as 
a  nation,  of  the  religion  which  God  made  ;  that  it  may  be 
plainly  declared  to  be  the  law  of  the  land,  not  left  to  be 


CHRISTIANITY    THE    INSPIRER    OF    NATIONS.  65 

proved  to  be  so  by  implication,  inference,  and  ingenuity; 
that  its  principles  may  be  applied  in  the  laws  and  con- 
duct of  the  government;  that  vi^hile  "all  who  profess  and 
call  themselves  Christians "  shall  be  free  to  worship 
God  in  their  own  way,  the  discipline  of  their  organiza- 
tions shall  be  respected,  and,  if  need  be,  protected,  but 
never  dictated  or  hindered  by  the  civil  authority ;  that 
all  Christians,  by  whatever  name  they  may  go,  shall  be 
free  to  educate  their  children  as  they  choose,  that  they 
may  be,  as  far  as  the  authority,  kindness,  and  fidelity 
of  parents  and  teachers  can  go,  Christian  children  first 
of  all,  and  then  diligent  and  faithful  learners  in  all  the 
branches  of  human  knowledge  for  which  they  have 
inclination  and  time,  being  wisely  advised  and  directed 
by  those  who  have  the  right  to  advise  and  direct. 

Both  these  points  are  of  great  importance.  In  the 
case  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  in  particular,  I  see  great 
possible  danger  in  the  future.  Some  of  the  Christian 
governments  of  Europe  seem  to  argue  that,  because 
they  are  Christian  governments,  they  have  a  right  to 
interfere  in  cases  of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  Precisely 
the  opposite  conclusion  is  the  only  logical  one.  On  the 
very  ground  that  they  are  Christian  governments,  they 
have  no  right  so  to  interfere,  but  it  is  their  duty  to  pro- 
tect all  Christian  organizations  in  their  inherent  prerog- 
atives. All  such  organizations,  calling  themselves  and 
known  in  the  community  as  Christian,  and  so  recognized 
in  deeds  of  property  and  acts  of  incorporation,  should 
be  defended,  not  assailed,  by  a  Christian  government, 

£ 


66  THE   AMERICAN    STATE, 

when  an  unfaithful  or  a  muthious  minister  has  been 
suspended  or  degraded  from  his  office.  No  such  man 
should  be  restored  to  his  post  by  the  civil  authority ; 
and  if  he  makes  a  formal  appeal  to  a  civil  court  for 
restoration,  the  only  questions  which  the  court  can 
consider  are  these  :  Has  he  been  condemned  ?  if  so, 
was  the  authority  which  condemned  him  that  which  is 
recognized  by  the  Christian  organization  to  which  he 
belongs  as  having  the  right  to  condemn  ?  If  this  is  so, 
the  court  must  dismiss  the  case,  as  having  no  jurisdic- 
tion, for  it  cannot  open  the  question  of  a  right  or  wrong 
condemnation  without  judging  the  case.  The  court, 
however,  can  go  one  step  further,  if  the  appellant  refuses 
to  yield  property  belonging  to  the  trust  from  which  he 
has  been  removed.  It  can  compel  him  to  yield  ;  for  it 
will  be  understood  that  the  civil  courts  will  not  interfere 
with  ecclesiastical  judgments  in  any  case,  except  to  en- 
force them,  where  they  come  within  the  range  of  civil 
authority.  No  Christian  nation  can  properly  recognize 
mutineers  as  the  regular  army  of  the  Lord.  The  mu- 
tineers may  possibly  be  right.  If  they  think  they  are, 
then  they  must  appeal  to  the  highest  authority  which 
their  organization  recognizes  as  the  court  of  final  ap- 
peal. The  government  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
case,  as  regards  the  justice  of  the  decision. 

But  a  Christian  government  has  not  only  negative 
duties,  it  has  also  positive  rights.  Among  them  is  the 
right  to  break  up  institutions  —  like  those  of  the  Mor- 
mons, for  instance — which  conflict  with  Christian  morals 


CHRISTIANITY    THE    INSPIRER    OF    NATIONS.  6/ 

and  the  common  law.  It  has  the  right  to  prevent 
any  more  public  assemblies  of  any  set  of  people,  in 
which  assemblies  it  has  been  proved  that  the  sanctities 
of  the  Christian  religion,  where  they  touch  morals  or 
the  good  order  of  society,  are  openly,  defiantly,  and 
habitually  denounced.  A  Christian  government  has 
the  right  to  suppress,  with  the  strong  arm  of  the  law, 
bad  books,  bad  newspapers,  bad  plays.  While  a  Chris- 
tian government  should  allow  a  very  wide  scope  to 
human  inquiry  and  investigation,  it  has  a  right  to 
demand  that  institutions  of  learning  shall  not  boldly, 
directly,  and  habitually  teach  and  encourage  infidelity 
and  immorality  under  the  name  of  science,  because 
such  teaching  perverts  science,  the  daughter  of  truth, 
into  a  foul  and  brazen  teacher  of  lies,  and  tends  to 
make  good  citizens  bad  citizens,  and  bad  citizens  worse. 
Every  Christian  government  should  be  the  firm  and 
strong  ally  of  the  Church  of  God  in  fostering  and 
promoting  everything  which  tends  to  Tift,  refine,  and 
ennoble  man,  and  in  discouraging,  denouncing,  and 
restraining  everything  which  tends  to  lower,  degrade, 
and  corrupt  him.  A  Christian  government  should  be 
the  earnest  and  special  friend  and  patron  of  literature, 
art,  and  science,  when  they  are  true  to  themselves  and 
to  God,  who  made  the  worlds  of  material  and  spiritual 
beauty  which  they  are  intended  to  illustrate. 

A  Christian  government  should  do  everything  that 
is  just  to  encourage  and  develop  honorable  industry  in 
all  its  branches,  and  manly  enterprise  in  all  its  ways. 


68  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

A  Christian  man  is  not  of  necessity  a  drone ;  and  a 
Christian  government,  so  far  from  being  less  energetic 
than  others,  should  be  far  more  so  ;  only  it  makes,  or 
should  make,  the  pursuits  of  material  benefit  secondary 
to  those  which  are  inspired  by  the  highest  motives  and 
the  purest  aspirations  of  man. 

A  Christian  government  ought  to  protect  and  en- 
force Christian  law  and  discipline  respecting  marriage 
and  divorce.  All  State  laws  on  both  these  subjects 
should  be  completely  and  forever  abolished.  The  na- 
tional government,  without  recognizing  any  Christian 
organization  as  exclusively  binding  on  its  allegiance, 
can  have  and  should  have  one  law  only  throughout  the 
country  on  these  subjects,  the  main  features  of  which 
should  be,  that  no  marriages  will  be  held  lawful,  either 
as  regards  the  rights  of  persons  or  of  property,  which  are 
not  formed  under  some  Christian  sanction,  or  Jewish, 
in  cases  where  both  parties  are  Jews ;  and  that  no 
divorces  whatever,  of  any  kind  or  for  any  cause,  shall 
be  permitted  without  the  decree  of  some  recognized 
ecclesiastical  authority. 

As  regards  other  religions  than  the  Christian,  and 
the  relation  of  civil  government  towards  them,  though 
no  religion  but  the  Christian — unless  it  be  the  Jewish, 
in  virtue  of  its  ancient  and  once  valid  authority  —  has 
any  rights  as  a  religion  which  Christian  governments 
are  bound  to  protect,  yet  the  adherents  of  these  other 
religions  may  have  rights  as  citizens,  and  such  rights 
are  to  be  respected  and  protected  precisely  like  the 


CHRISTIANITY    THE    INSPIRER    OF    NATIONS.  69 

rights  of  all  other  citizens ;  but  among  these  rights  as 
citizens  is  not  included  any  right  to  hold  public  as- 
semblies for  worship  in  v/hich  tenets  are  advanced,  or 
practices  approved,  subversive  of  Christian  morals  or 
public  order. 

Many  people,  not  J:hinking  very  profoundly,  seem  to 
feel  that  we  have  a  right  as  a  nation  to  assume  great 
pride  because  our  country  has  never  been  to  any  great 
extent,  the  theatre  of  contests  connected  with  relig- 
ion ;  and  they  contrast  the  governments  of  Europe, 
which,  professing  to  be  Christian,  have  been  neverthe- 
less nearly  torn  to  pieces  sometimes  by  insurrections 
against  Christian  authority,  with  our  freedom  from  such 
terrible  conflicts.  It  is  too  soon  to  boast.  The  Christian 
governments  of  Europe,  by  professing  as  nations  to  re- 
spect and  uphold  the  Christian  faith,  have  made,  in  so 
doing,  a  constant  declaration  of  war  against  the  rebel 
who  defies  all  divine  and  human  authority  ;  and  the 
Devil  has  answered  the  challenge,  and  has  used  all  his 
Satanic  engineries  to  destroy  the  Christian  faith  and 
Christian  institutions.  The  contest  has  been  going  on 
for  centuries,  and  the  forces  seem  to  be  gathering  for  a 
fiercer  struggle  than  ever. 

The  great  adversary  of  God  and  man  changes  his 
ground  with  wonderful  skill,  and  assumes  more  disguises 
than  Milton  assigns  to  him  in  "Paradise  Lost."  Now  he 
appears  as  the  advocate  of  civil  supremacy  in  all  things, 
applauding  especially  marriage  as  nothing  but  a  civil 
contract.     Now  he  advises  kings  to  rule  without  parlia- 


70  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

ments ;  then  he  advises  parhaments  to  rule  without 
kings  ;  again  he  urges  the  people  to  rule  without  either, 
each  one  doing  what  each  likes  best,  even  though  trying 
his  best  to  do  his  worst,  and  all,  perhaps,  fighting  for 
the  same  thing,  until  civil  society  gives  place  to  uncivil 
pandemonium.  His  great  delight,  however,  is  to  put 
on  the  cap  of  liberty,  and  talk  about  liberality  and  a 
broad  and  comprehensive  charity  towards  all  kinds  and 
modes  of  faith  and  no  faith,  to  deprecate  severity  of  dis- 
cipline, and  to  wonder  why  men  will  not  live  together 
like  brothers,  though  the  main  reason  why  they  do  not 
is  because  he  is  ever  near  to  prevent  their  doing  so  ; 
and  all  this  is  to  undermine  in  every  way  possible,  by 
policies  contradictory  at  different  times,  or  contradictory 
in  different  places  at  the  same  time,  the  glorious  faith 
which  he  hates,  and  the  governments  which  protect  it, 
who  sometimes  have  listened  to  his  silvery  speech,  but 
recovered  before  they  had  quite  gone  over  the  ridge  of 
destruction  to  which  his  crafty  counsels  had  brought 
them.  Now  he  urges  a  Prussian  Prime  Minister  to 
turn  Spain  into  a  Prussian  province,  so  as  to  destroy 
Christian  France  by  her  imperative  resistance  to  such  a 
flank  movement,  intended  to  chain  her  in  a  vice,  with 
ungrateful  Italy  on  one  side,  and  Spain  under  Prussian 
control  on  the  other,  so  that  Prussia  may  advance  un- 
hindered to  the  subjugation  of  Europe,  When  the  dis- 
asters occur,  which  afford  him  ecstatic  joy,  he  supplies 
petroleum  and  firebrands,  from  his  own  unlimited  re- 
sources in  that  line,  to  destroy  Paris,  not  so  much  be- 


CHRISTIANITY  THE   INSPIRER   OF    NATIONS.  /I 

cause  it  is  a  beautiful  and  splendid  city,  as  because  it  is 
the  capital  of  a  noble  Christian  nation,  which,  notwith- 
standing its  vagaries  and  follies,  has  lived  centuries  of 
renown,  and  even  now,  in  her  penitence,  is  more  glori- 
ous than  Prussia  in  her  pride.  Now  he  advises  England 
to  turn  pirate,  and  prey  upon  the  commerce  of  a  friendly 
nation  engaged  in  a  terrific  struggle  for  life.  Then  he 
persuades  Italy  to  turn  burglar,  and  rob  the  most  august 
sovereignty  on  earth  of  some  of  its  most  ancient  and 
sacred  rights. 

Yet  the  conflicts  between  the  sons  of  light  and  the 
powers  of  darkness  which  have  arisen  from  the  recogni- 
tion by  governments  of  the  fact  that  Christianity  is  the 
lawful  ruler  of  the  world,  have  won  in  the  end  a  thou- 
sand rewards  for  right  for  every  victory  for  wrong. 
Notwithstanding  all  the  weakness,  sin,  trouble,  and 
treachery  which  European  history  can  show,  it  is  her 
Christianity —  which,  being  of  higher  authority  than  any 
nation,  can  receive  the  homage  and  loyalty  of  every 
nation,  without  any  surrender  of  national  worth  or  rela- 
tive importance — which  has  been  the  chief  stronghold 
of  Europe  against  bitter  foes  without  and  yet  more  bitter 
foes  within. 

Some  people  who  look  at  the  dark  pages  of  human 
history  only,  though  believing  sincerely  in  the  Christian 
faith,  have  seemed  to  regret  that  Constantine,  as  the 
head  of  the  Roman  Empire,  ever  bent  his  imperial  knee 
in  homage  to  the  Cross  ;  yet  from  that  great  deed  what 
greater  deeds  have  sprung  !     Notwithstanding  the  ter- 


72  THE   AMERICAN   STATE. 

rible  tumults  that  have  occurred  in  consequence  of  the 
assumption  of  power  by  emperors  and  kings  over  the 
faith  which  they  professed  to  obey,  yet  the  benefits 
which  have  resulted  from  the  alliance  of  Christianity 
with  civil  government  have  immeasurably  exceeded  the 
evils.  Civil  authority,  when  it  has  recognized  the  Chris- 
tian faith  as  its  supreme  law,  and  has  acted  agreeably 
to  that  recognition,  has  had  a  power  and  a  sanction 
to  bring  about  great  results  in  all  the  ways  that  im- 
prove and  exalt  mankind  that  it  never  would  have  won 
from  any  other  source,  or  from  all  other  sources  com- 
bined ;  and  Christianity,  by  her  alliance  with  the  civil 
power,  has  had  a  strong  arm  for  her  defence  against 
assault,  and  has  more  than  repaid  all  the  help  she  has 
received,  by  imparting  nobler  motives  of  action,  higher 
standards  of  individual  and  national  honor,  and,  more 
than  all,  by  hastening  the  time  when  all  human  gov- 
ernments, all  human  institutions,  all  men,  shall  bend 
the  adoring  knee  at  the  Redeemer's  cross.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  Christianity  was  meant  to  be  blended  with 
all  the  affairs  of  men.  To  keep  her  power  entirely  dis- 
connected from  the  state  is  no  more  reasonable  than  to 
keep  it  severed  from  the  individual  pursuits  of  men,  from 
the  family,  or  from  the  school.  Christianity  can  be  con- 
tent with  nothing  less  than  to  be  the  supreme  guide  of 
all  men,  at  all  times,  everywhere,  and  in  every  way. 

The  conflicts  in  our  country  have  been  mainly  of 
political  principles  and  policies,  or  to  save  her  from 
destruction.     The  sovereign   claims  of  Christianity  to 


CHRISTIANITY    THE    INSPIRER    OF    NATIONS,  ^^ 

rule  the  world,  not  simply  as  an  abstract  theory,  but  as  a 
practical  system,  have  never  excited  any  wide  or  special 
attention  in  our  own  country  as  having  any  bearing 
upon  ourselves.  When  the  time  shall  come  for  those 
claims  to  be  made,  and  when,  according  to  the  ap- 
parent design  of  Providence,  it  shall  become  the  plain 
and  binding  duty  of  America  to  take  her  place  as  an 
authoritative  Christian  power,  with  a  right  to  speak  and 
to  act  as  such  in  both  hemispheres,  there  will  be  no 
lack  of  excitement  and  commotion.  When  this  tre- 
mendous question  shall  demand  an  answer,  there  will 
be  room  enough,  and  time  enough,  and  opportunity 
enough  to  win  the  Christian  hero's  laurel  or  the  Chris- 
tian martyr's  crown. 

The  Devil  can  very  prudently  permit  our  country  to 
rest  for  the  present,  because  here  he  has  a  vantage- 
ground  which  he  has  not  in  Europe.  In  Europe  the 
Devil  is  an  outlaw ;  so  regarded,  so  treated  in  theory 
by  all  the  Christian  governments,  however  much  in 
practice  they  may  follow  his  counsel.  But  in  America 
the  Devil  is  not  an  outlaw,  but  a  fellow-citizen,  in  good 
and  regular  standing ;  who  goes  to  the  caucus,  which 
he  has  already  packed,  and  finally  prevails  on  a  political 
candidate  to  accept,  very  reluctantly  and  diffidently,  his 
nomination,  which  has  been  made  to  his  great  astonish- 
ment and  surprise, — as  he  says,  —  but  which  he  may 
have  been  trying  with  all  his  might  to  get  for  ten  years. 
Then  the  Devil  votes  "early  and  often,"  wherever  he 
can.  He  goes  to  national  conventions  for  nominating 
4 


74  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

Presidents,  and  enjoys  himself  very  much,  because  they 
seem  so  natural  and  homelike.  He  is  petted  and  patted 
on  the  back  by  committees  of  both  political  parties,  who 
make  heavy  bids  to  get  his  support ;  and  he  accepts 
both  bids,  and  pockets  the  money.  He  is  told  that 
large  and  influential  numbers  of  American  citizens  de- 
fine a  free  country  as  one  in  which  the  Devil  has  equal 
rights  with  Almighty  God,  and  argue  that  laws  should 
be  made  or  applied  accordingly  ;  which  being  told  for 
news  makes  the  Devil  chuckle,  for  it  is  no  news  to  him. 
Then  he  is  told  that  many  Americans  regard  him  as 
the  victim  of  a  rather  exclusive  administration  ;  that 
though  it  would  not  do  to  nominate  him  for  the  Presi- 
dency, because  availability  must  first  be  considered, 
and  his  nomination  might  offend  some  superstitious  old 
bats,  who  count  nothing  of  themselves,  though  their 
votes  do,  yet  that  any  special  friend  of  his,  and  known 
to  be  such  by  the  managers,  would  stand  a  good 
chance.  Then  they  tell  him  that  he  can  make  the 
laws  to  suit  himself;  and  then  the  Devil  chuckles 
again,  for  he  has  had  already  a  hand  in  making  many 
of  them  ;  and  then  he  winks  and  says,  "Indiana"  ;  then 
they  all  laugh.  One  says,  "  That 's  a  good  one  "  ;  then 
they  all  laugh  again  and  take  something.  Then  the 
Devil  winks  again  and  says,  "  Connecticut "  ;  then  an- 
other cries,  "  That 's  another  good  one."  Then  they 
laugh  all  round  again  and  take  something. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

MATERIALISM    THE    CURSE    OF    AMERICA. 

If  there  is  much  to  discourage  an  American  who 
desires  to  see  his  country  at  least  on  the  road  towards 
the  goal  of  true  national  glory,  much  remains  to  invig- 
orate hope.  The  very  impression  which  has  been  so 
deep  in  the  history  of  our  country,  that  she  is  reserved 
by  Providence  for  some  great  object,  is  in  itself  hopeful ; 
for  the  impression  may  in  time  inspire  deeds  according 
to  it,  as  it  already  has  done  when  our  country's  life  was 
in  peril.  A  lofty  aim,  though  it  may  long  lie  smoulder- 
ing in  the  heart  of  a  man  or  of  a  nation,  is  better  than 
a  blank  of  high  designs.  It  is  well  enough  to  talk  about 
clearing  the  track  before  the  higher  national  life  begins 
its  course,  but  how  long  are  we  to  wait  for  the  track  to 
be  cleared,  when  just  as  soon  as  one  railroad  three 
thousand  miles  long  is  built,  another  road  as  long  or 
longer  is  begun,  to  break  up  the  fair  profits  of  the 
original  enterprise,  and  in  the  end  to  swamp  them  all 
in  irretrievable  disaster.? 

Our  country,  according  to  the  usual  reckoning,  is 
nearly  a  hundred  years  old  already;  yet,  as  regards  those 
developments  of  intellectual  eminence  which  make  the 


'j6  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

chief  glory  of  nations,  she  is  yet  a  child  ;  and  when 
rebuked,  as  she  deserves  to  be,  for  what  little  she  has 
done  in  the  higher  sphere  of  national  power  and 
honor,  contrasted  with  what  she  has  done  in  the  lower 
sphere  of  material  progress,  she  claims  more  time. 
But  how  long  will  she  wait  ?  Must  all  the  forests 
in  America  be  cut  down  and  turned  into  ships,  or 
into  logs  for  politicians  to  roll  ;  must  every  acre  of 
open  ground  on  the  continent  be  bearing  wheat,  pota- 
toes, or  taxes  ;  must  there  be  a  howling  mill  bordering 
every  mile  of  water  from  Maine  to  Mexico,  before 
our  country  will  learn  and  own  that  commerce,  agri- 
culture, and  manufactures,  important  as  they  are,  should 
not  absorb  a  nation's  soul  ?  Must  our  country  wait 
for  a  literature  worthy  of  herself  until  she  shall  be 
so  crossed  by  rival  railroads  from  every  Atlantic  to 
every  Pacific  port,  and  from  the  Lakes  to  the  soil  and 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  as  to  be  a  continental  gridiron,  on 
which  stocks  will  be  cooked  to  a  crisp,  and  burn  the 
fingers  of  all  who  touch  them  ? 

The  theory  is  false,  that  the  intellectual  field  of  the 
country  must  be  left  to  run  to  weeds  until  the  material 
acres  shall  be  all  developed  ;  that  a  nation  must  reach 
her  dotage  before  she  begins  to  think  or  to  write.  A 
literature  worthy  of  the  name  is  not  produced  when 
nations  are  worn  out,  but  in  the  fulness  of  their  vigor- 
ous energy,  when  throbbing  with  manly  pulses,  having 
faces  ruddy  with  health  and  eyes  beaming  with  clear 
and  s:enerous  fire. 


MATERIALISM    THE    CURSE    OF    AMERICA.  7/ 

Did  Greece  wait  until  she  had  lost  her  teeth  and  her 
independence  before  she  charged  with  the  fire  of  her 
soul  her  never-dying  works  of  genius  ?  Did  Rome  wait 
until  she  had  conquered  the  world  before  she  stamped 
all  time  with  immortal  figures  of  intellectual  might  ? 
Were  the  giants  of  Italian  song  obliged  to  wait  until 
Italy  was  in  perfect  repose,  enjoying  wealth  and  "all 
festivity,"  before  they  tuned  their  harps,  and  a  world, 
though  rocked  on  the  billows  of  political  convulsion, 
listened  enchanted  ?  Did  England  wait  until  she  had 
conquered  India  and  spanned  the  earth  with  armaments 
before  she  bade  Chaucer  and  Shakespeare  sing,  Roger 
and  Francis  Bacon  think,  and  Newton  see  ;  or  heard 
St.  Thomas  a  Becket  assert  the  rights  of  the  soul  above 
those  of  the  sceptre  ?  Where  would  have  been  the 
treasures  of  German  literature,  if  Goethe  and  the  rest 
had  lived  and  died  waiting  for  Bismarck  to  come  and, 
after  trying  to  destroy  all  that  is  glorious  in  France, 
then  turn  to  try  to  destroy  all  that  is  best  and  noblest 
in  German  life  and  history? 

The  grandest  works  of  human  genius  in  literature 
and  art  have  grown  with  the  growth  of  the  nations  in 
which  they  were  inspired.  When  nations  have  become 
luxurious  and  corrupt,  and  have  rested  from  eager  toil, 
genius  itself  has  become  eftcminate  and  weak.  The 
sunshine  which  ripens  the  harvests  of  national  power 
kindles  the  fires  of  the  poet's  soul,  lights  for  the  sculp- 
tor and  the  architect  the  way  of  renown,  and  tips  the 
pencil  of  the  painter  with  beauty. 


yS  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

During  the  calumniated  ages,  —  those  ages  of  mar- 
vellous intellectual  splendor,  commonly  called  the  Dark 
Ages,  —  the  highest  and  noblest  knowledge  was  sought 
with  the  avidity  with  which,  in  this  age  of  light,  specu- 
lators gamble  in  stocks.  In  the  Dark  Ages  the  wonders 
of  the  soul  of  man,  the  mysteries  of  "thoughts  that  wan- 
der through  eternity,"  were  investigated  with  the  same 
eager  intensity  with  which,  in  this  age  of  light,  philoso- 
phers study  bugs  and  the  bones  of  primeval  nonde- 
scripts. In  the  Dark  Ages  emperors  and  kings  and 
nations  vied  with  each  other  in  building  majestic  cathe- 
drals, to  stand  for  ages,  for  worshipping  in  a  majestic 
manner  the  eternal  majesty  of  God.  In  this  age  of 
light  emperors  and  kings  and  nations  vie  with  each 
other  in  building  houses  of  glass  which  a  hail-storm 
may  destroy,  to  display  the  gilt  and  glare  of  civilization, 
not  even  admitting  books  for  their  worth  as  books,  but 
only  for  their  luxurious  binding.  In  the  Dark  Ages 
Gregorian  chants  echoed  beneath  lofty  arches  reared 
for  the  worship  of  the  Most  High,  as  though  they  would 
join  the  music  of  the  choirs  "  that  circle  God's  throne 
rejoicing."  It  was  reserved  for  an  age  of  light  to  sing 
the  praises  of  God  to  the  music  of  opera-dancers.  In 
the  Dark  Ages  philosophers  believed  that  man  was  made, 
as  Revelation  says  he  was  made,  in  the  image  of  God ; 
and  they  drew  their  most  powerful  arguments  for  a 
noble  life  from  that  undoubted  truth.  In  this  age  of 
light  philosophers  maintain  that  man  was  made  in  the 
image  of  a  monkey,  and  retains  it  with  the  addition 


MATERIALISM   THE    CURSE   OF    AMERICA.  79 

of  "  all  the  modern  improvements "  ;  from  which  it 
follows  that,  if  a  man  lives  a  monkey's  life  and  dies  a 
monkey's  death,  he  rounds  the  circle  of  his  destiny.  In 
the  Dark  Ages  giants  of  thought  and  study  built  works 
of  intellectual  power  as  strong  as  the  cathedrals,  and 
yet  more  enduring ;  for  when  the  cathedrals  shall  have 
become  shapeless  ruins,  countless  thousands  will  con- 
tinue to  be  nerved  and  exalted  by  the  grand  thoughts 
of  those  majestic  masters  of  the  soul,  yet  humble  ser- 
vants of  God,  whose  words  will  never  die.  It  was 
reserved  for  an  age  of  light  to  hang  on  the  lips  of  a 
jester  with  a  thousand  times  more  enthusiastic  delight 
than  it  would  on  the  lips  of  the  Archangel  Raphael. 

The  Dark  Ages,  as  we  insolently  call  them,  were 
ages  of  furious  storms  in  Church  and  State.  At  times 
it  seemed  as  though  chaos  would  come  again  ;  yet, 
generally,  the  questions  which  led  to  such  terrific 
convulsions  were  great  c^uestions.  Often,  when  they 
seemed  to  concern  nothing  more  than  the  claims  of 
rivals  for  a  throne,  they  really  touched  three  worlds. 
Heaven,  Earth,  and  Hell. 

The  very  men,  perhaps  themselves  without  learning, 
who  were  engaged  in  the  tumults  of  those  times,  when 
society  was  in  a  state  of  transformation,  were  often  the 
zealous  friends  and  defenders  of  human  knowledge  and 
of  scholars,  poets,  and  thinkers.  Those  were  times 
when  there  might  be  some  excuse  for  neglecting  the 
higher  traits  of  civilization  ;  but  they  were  not  neglected, 
and  we  are  now  gathering  the  fruits  of  that  noble  de- 


So  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

termination  that  the  souls  of  men  should  not  starve 
while  the  nations  were  passing  through  the  Red  Sea 
of  stormy  conflict  from  Pagan  Egypt  to  the  Christian 
Canaan.  Rulers  and  potentates,  half-barbarians  as 
some  of  them  were,  did  not  wait  until  society  was  or- 
ganized, and  contending  powers  had  ceased  to  strive, 
before  they  filled  the  scholar's  lamp,  endowed  the 
scholar's  home,  and  gave  him  time  and  freedom  to 
follow  the  mind  and  heart  of  man  through  all  their 
wondrous  ways,  and  even  to  soar  upon  the  wings  of 
humble  yet  courageous  faith,  to  catch  upon  the  mirrors 
of  their  souls  some  beams  of  light  from  the  eternal 
throne. 

I  have  said  enough  to  illustrate  what  I  mean  in  say- 
ing that,  by  the  profound  contempt  with  which  our 
country  has  generally  treated  the  better  and  nobler 
labors  and  struggles  of  national  inspiration  and~glory, 
she  has  dishonored  and  degraded  herself,  all  the  mem- 
ories of  her  past,  all  the  hopes  of  her  future.  Other 
nations  have  revelled  in  greater  luxury,  but  not  one 
ever  before  revelled  in  such  vulgar  luxury,  so  unre- 
deemed by  lofty  aims  and  objects  ;  not  one  ever  made 
such  ostentatious  displays,  with  so  httle,  so  far  as  the 
world  knows,  of  that  real,  eternal  worth  which  survives 
the  crash  of  empires,  behind  the  ostentation  ;  not  one 
ever  before  so  trampled  upon  those  highest  graces  of 
civilization,  which  even  in  Pagan  empires  were  held  in 
the  highest  honor,  and  which  barbarians  recognized  and 
defended  with  a  cordial  sincerity  and  zeal  that  Amer- 


MATERIALISM    THE    CURSE    OF    AMERICA.  51 

ica,  the  stock-jobbing,  paper-money-making  "land  of 
the  free  and  home  of  the  brave,"  which  keeps  down 
merit  and  keeps  up  pretension,  woukl  scorn  to  feel  or 
show ;  not  one  ever  so  scouted  and  abhorred  the  claims 
of  the  human  soul,  as  does  this  broad,  noble  land  of 
ours,  which  is  set  forth  in  the  maps  of  our  school- 
books  in  pure  white  as  the  most  enlightened  part  of 
the  world,  while  other  lands  and  other  times  are  made 
to  wear  a  funeral  pall.  Revise  your  maps,  vainglorious 
geographers,  and  set  forth  the  nations  during  the  Dark 
Ages,  when  the  souls  of  men  were  held  in  honor,  in 
alluring  white ;  and  set  forth  your  own  country,  in  this 
age  of  light,  when  and  where  the  souls  of  men  are 
trampled  in  the  mire,  in  dismal  and  repulsive  black. 
The  merchants  of  Europe,  during  the  Middle  Ages  and 
those  subsequent,  were  ardent  friends  and  helpers  of 
literature  and  art.  With  some  most  glorious  excep- 
tions, what,  in  such  a  regard,  are  the  merchants  of  the 
New  World  ?     The  least  said  the  better. 

There  have,  indeed,  lived  among  us  men  who  have 
left  worthy  and  noble  records  of  their  lives  in  sterling 
works  of  literature.  Such  men  are  living  now  ;  but 
they,  like  their  predecessors,  have  to  go  against  the  tide. 
They  have  excited  but  little  of  the  sympathy  and  en- 
thusiasm with  which,  in  other  lands  and  other  times, 
men  like  them  have  been  regarded.  In  a  few  quiet 
circles  of  friends  they  have  been  appreciated  and  hon- 
ored ;  but  they  have  not  found  the  hearts  of  the  people 
of  their  country  beating  manfully  and  generously  with 


82  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

theirs,  inspiring  and  inspired.  Instead  of  being  lifted 
by  their  aspirations,  they  have  had  to  drag  them  Hke  a 
load.  America  is  free  for  anything  and  everything  ex- 
cept for  those  aims  and  efforts  which  are  the  chief  gift, 
joy,  and  crown  of  freedom.  Intellectual  life  in  Europe, 
generally,  feels  the  cheering  support  of  the  great  heart 
of  the  people  ;  and  that  is  a  constant  incentive  to  con- 
stant exertion.  Its  very  labors  have  wings  that  make 
them  light.  Intellectual  life  in  America  is  a  dreary, 
weary  treadmill,  and  every  toiling  foot  is  laden  with 
lead. 

I  have  used  the  language  of  denunciation.  I  have 
used  it  with  good  reason.  I  have  a  right  to  use  it,  and 
will  use  it  again  with  tenfold  greater  severity,  if  I  shall 
choose  to  do  so,  and  if  the  same  reason  shall  continue 
to  be,  not  because  I  hate  my  country,  —  for,  if  I  did,  I 
should  not  care,  —  but  because  I  love  my  country,  and 
desire  with  all  my  heart  that  she  should  be  what  she 
ought  to  be,  what  she  was  evidently  intended  by  Al- 
mighty God  to  be,  what  all  friends  of  everything  no- 
blest and  best  in  Christian  civilization  supposed  she 
would  be,  but  what  she  has  not  been,  is  not,  and  ap- 
parently has  no  desire  to  be.  If  there  were  a  hell  for 
nations,  as  there  is  for  individuals  who  prove  traitors  to 
God  and  man,  I  should  indeed  tremble  for  my  country. 

I  will  take  a  more  cheering  view.  I  will  try  to  be- 
lieve that  noble  aspirations  find  a  welcome  in  tens  of 
thousands  of  American  hearts,  which  have  little  oppor- 
tunity for  expression,  though  they  receive  no  favor  from 


MATERIALISM    THE    CURSE    OF    AMERICA.  83 

the  government,  but,  on  the  contrary,  total  neglect  or 
insolent  derision,  and  that  there  is  in  our  country  a  de- 
termination that  it  shall  not  always  be  so.  On  that 
faith  I  lean  and  hope.  I  cannot  believe  that  all  the 
noble  struggles  of  our  country  have  been  in  vain.  I 
cannot  believe  that  the  western  star  of  empire  is  noth- 
ing but  the  illuminated  golden  seal  of  mammon.  I 
cannot  believe  that  our  country  is  much  longer  to  be  a 
coliseum  as  vast  as  the  continent,  in  which  stock-job- 
bers are  the  gladiators  and  a  population  of  forty  millions 
of  people  the  eager  and  applauding  spectators.  I  can- 
not believe  that  Washington  was  born  in  vain,  lived  in 
vain,  strove  in  vain,  and  died  in  vain.  As  I  look  upon 
the  calm  face  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  I  draw  new- 
hope  from  the  view.  Would  God  have  given  to  our 
country  so  wise  and  so  illustrious  a  guide  in  her  time 
of  need,  if  He  had  not  meant  that  our  country  herself 
should  be,  in  due  time,  a  wise  and  illustrious  guide  ? 
A  man  may,  indeed,  by  his  own  free  will,  bring  about 
his  own  destruction,  refusing  to  grasp  the  rope  which 
is  thrown  out  for  his  rescue  ;  but  can  such  a  thing  as 
the  defeat  of  a  divine  purpose  respecting  a  nation  be 
known  in  the  counsels  of  the  Most  High  and  Omnipo- 
tent God  .-*  I  cannot  believe  it :  I  will  not  believe  it. 
My  faith  may  die,  but  it  shall  wear  the  blooming  and 
fragrant  garland  of  hope  until  it  dies. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

AMERICA    A    CHRISTIAN    POWER. 

George  Washington  !  How  entirely  wrong  are 
many  of  the  views  regarding  him,  held  even  by  those 
who  love  and  revere  his  memory  !  They  look  upon 
him  as  a  man  almost  without  warm  sympathies  or 
human  passions.  What  is  the  truth  ?  George  Wash- 
ington was,  in  his  nature,  one  of  the  most  ardent,  im- 
pulsive, impetuous  of  men.  He  was  a  man  of  fiery 
passions  held  under  control  and  made  ready  servants, 
not  despotic  masters,  by  sublime  wisdom  and  Christian 
principle.  By  the  impulse  of  his  nature  in  his  terrible 
conflict,  he  would  with  heroic  boldness  have  met  the 
armies  sent  to  subjugate  his  country  many  a  time,  and 
if  falling  in  the  face  of  the  enemy  and  in  front  of  his 
soldiers,  he  might  have  left  behind  him  the  renown  of  a 
fiery  hero,  like  Richard  of  the  Lion-heart ;  but  the  cost 
of  his  personal  glory  forever  might  have  been  the  ruin 
of  his  country.  He  knew  that  with  the  solemn  charge 
in  his  hands,  and  with  his  slender  resources,  he  must 
avoid  positive  and  direct  engagements  when  it  was  pos- 
sible, and  to  accept  them  only  when  it  was  impossible 
to  do  otherwise,  or  under  such  conditions  that,  while 


AMERICA    A    CHRISTIAN    POWER.  85 

victory  might  not  be  decisive,  defeat  would  not  be  fatal 
for  his  cause.  In  nothing  is  the  genius  of  Washington 
more  manifest  than  in  the  skill  with  which  he  baffled 
the  efforts  of  the  generals  sent  to  destroy  him  and  his 
small,  though  devoted  army  in  desperate  conflicts.  It 
was  often  the  duty  of  Washington  —  and  the  most 
bitter  duty  that  can  fall  to  the  lot  of  a  brave  man  — 
to  bear  the  imputation  of  a  want  of  bravery,  rather  than 
to  risk  the  fate  of  his  country  on  the  open  field  without 
imperative  need.  Yet  the  war  gave  many  proofs  that 
he  was  not  wanting  in  the  most  heroic  personal  cour- 
age ;  and  as  to  the  army  which  he  led,  history  cannot 
often  show  more  glorious  daring  or  more  glorious  en- 
durance than  theirs. 

Time  may  indeed  make  it  needful,  even  in  complet- 
ing the  majestic  work  which  Washington  began,  to 
depart  on  some  points  even  from  his  patriotic  counsels, 
which,  of  unerring  wisdom  when  uttered,  may  prove  not 
to  be  wise  under  very  different  conditions.  For  instance, 
his  advice  against  "entangling  alliances"  was  just  and 
right  when  it  was  given,  and  it  would  be  equally  just 
and  right  now,  if  any  alliance  were  to  be  accepted  or 
to  be  sought  with  any  other  nation  for  any  merely  self- 
ish object  on  either  side  ;  but  in  performing  any  of  the 
great  national  or  international  duties  which  the  future 
may  make  imperative,  it  will  not  be  just  and  right  to 
decline  doing  that  duty  through  fear  of  an  "entangling 
alliance." 

When  the  time  shall  come  for  America  to  take  her 


S6  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

share  in  restoring  Christian  sovereignty  to  Eastern  Eu- 
rope, Western  Asia,  and  Northern  Africa,  she  will  be 
compelled  by  urgent  need,  not  only  without  reproach, 
but  with  immortal  ho,nor,  to  accept  or  to  seek  an  alli- 
ance with  any  Christian  nation,  or  with  more  than  one, 
which  shall  earnestly  endeavor  to  fulfil  the  long-bind- 
ing, yet  long-neglected  duty  of  Christendom.  America 
may  have  recognized  Mohammedan  sovereignty  over 
Christian  people  as  a  fact, — and  a  fact  it  is,  and  the 
most  degrading  one  in  modern  history,  —  but  she  has 
never  recognized  it  as  just,  and  she  never  will.  America, 
when  she  shall  become  plainly  and  avowedly  a  Chris- 
tian nation,  will  be  able,  and  it  may  become  her  duty, 
to  act  with  the  lofty  heroism  and  for  the  holy  purpose 
of  the  glorious  Crusades.  Indeed,  the  signs  of  history 
seem  to  show  that  if  Mohammedan  sovereignty  shall 
not  be  quietly  and  completely  surrendered  on  the  unan- 
imous demand  of  the  Christian  powers,  including  those 
of  America,  our  own  noble  empire  will  have  the  un- 
fading honor  of  leading  the  last  and  permanently  tri- 
umphant Crusade.  Certainly,  one  of  her  first  duties, 
when  by  her  own  will  and  by  the  consent  of  the  rest 
she  shall  become  a  member  of  the  family  of  Christian 
nations,  will  be  to  demand  that  Jerusalem  and  Con- 
stantinople shall  no  longer  be  subjected  to  the  rule  of 
the  enemies  and,  as  far  as  they  could  be,  destroyers 
of  the  Christian  faith,  —  Jerusalem,  because  she  is  the 
mother  of  us  all,  the  most  sacred  spot  on  earth,  where 
God  and  man  united  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the  king- 


AMERICA    A    CHRISTIAN    POWER.  8/ 

dom  of  heaven  upon  earth  ;  and  Constantinople,  because 
founded  by  the  sovereign  who  first  recognized  Chris- 
tianity as  the  sovereign  law  for  nations  as  for  men. 

When  the  great  Eastern  question,  eight  centuries  old 
and  an  unanswered  question  yet,  shall  again  be  opened 
for  decision,  the  Christian  world  may  be  very  sure  that 
the  rights  of  Christianity  and  of  Christendom  will  not 
again  be  dishonored,  disowned,  and  betrayed  by  another 
Treaty  of  Paris,  like  that  of  1856,  in  which  all  the 
rights  whose  recovery  inspired  the  hearts  and  hands 
of  Christian  soldiers  for  ages  were  basely  surrendered 
at  the  victorious  demands  of  England  and  France,  or 
rather  of  Turkey ;  for  Mohammedan  power,  in  the 
height  of  its  baleful  ascendency,  never  won  by  her  own 
force  of  arms  a  triumph  more  insolent  than  it  gained 
by  diplomacy  from  the  so-called  Christian  powers  in 
1856.  Before  any  treaty  can  be  again  made,  settling 
the  sovereignty  of  the  East,  America  will  be  a  Christian 
power,  and  she  will  put  an  imperative  and  effective  veto 
upon  any  treacherous  surrender  of  the  rights  of  Chris- 
tian sovereignty. 

When  the  time  shall  come  for  the  destruction  of  that 
iniquitous  treaty,  the  joint  work  of  infidels  and  apos- 
tates, in  which,  thank  God,  the  governments  of  North 
and  South  America  had  no  share  and  by  which  they 
are  not  bound,  England  and  France  may  remember 
that  they  have  been,  if  they  are  no  longer.  Christian 
nations,  and  may  act  accordingly.  At  any  rate,  let 
England  and  France  understand  plainly  and  in  season, 


88  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

that  then  America  will  have  something  to  say,  and 
probably  something  to  do.  America  will  pay  no  heed 
for  a  single  instant  to  any  such  incidental  question  as 
keeping  the  way  open  to  India  for  the  sake  of  anybody, 
or  as  keeping  the  balance  of  power  for  the  sake  of  any- 
body, but  will  take  and  hold  the  ground,  at  all  hazards, 
that  Mohammedan  usurpation  must  cease,  and  that 
Christian  sovereignty  must  be  restored  over  every  acre 
of  land  that  formed  a  part  of  the  first  Christian  empire. 
Let  God  be  praised  that  the  nations  of  Christendom, 
however  independent  they  may  be,  in  the  sense  of 
being  free  each  to  act  for  its  highest  good,  never  have 
been,  are  not,  and  never  will  be  independent  in  the 
sense  of  complete  isolation.  They  constitute  a  great 
family  of  nations,  whether  they  like  it  or  not  ;  a  very 
quarrelsome  family  oftentimes,  yet  one  family  never- 
theless. They  have  mutual  rights  and  mutual  duties  ; 
they  have  also  common  rights  and  common  duties ;  and 
they  are  all  equally  binding.  He  is  a  very  poor  patriot 
and  a  very  miserable  American  any  way,  who  thinks 
that  his  country  should  make  it  a  special  point  to  ab- 
sorb all  the  wealth  possible  to  nourish  her  individual 
pleasure,  and  all  the  influence  possible  to  nourish  her 
individual  pride.  Even  if  such  purposes  should  inspire 
not  only  the  people  but  the  government,  at  some  unex- 
pected moment  they  may  utterly  fail.  The  providence 
of  God  has  a  very  summary  way  at  times  of  destroying 
selfish  pretensions  and  plans,  as  truly  in  the  case  of 
nations  as  of  men.     America  cannot  share  in  the  wis- 


AMERICA    A    CHRISTIAN    POWER.  89 

dom  of  all  the  ages  without  sharing  in  the  national 
responsibilities  of  all  the  ages.  If  her  wealth  shall 
become  greater  than  that  of  her  neighbors,  so  will 
her  Christian  duty  be  greater.  If  her  power  shall 
become  greater  than  that  of  her  neighbors,  so  much 
greater  will  become  her  obligation  to  use  that  power, 
not  for  selfish  glory,  but  for  the  welfare,  authority,  and 
honor  of  all  mankind.  Christianity  cannot  cease  to  be 
aggressive  upon  all  forms  of  error  without  being  false 
to  herself  and  to  her  divine  origin  ;  and  Christian 
nations  cannot  cease  to  be  aggressive  upon  all  obsta- 
cles and  enemies  to  the  Christian  faith,  without  being 
false  to  the  cross  and  to  their  God.  In  the  future  to  a 
far  greater  extent  than  ever  before.  Christian  nations 
will  see  and  do  their  duty  as  Christian  nations,  until 
the  Redeemer's  cross  shall  be  tenderly  touched  by  the 
shadow  in  every  valley,  and  triumphantly  illumined  by 
the  light  on  every  mountain  throughout  the  globe. 

Our  country  is  not  an  avowed  Christian  nation,  but 
the  first  men  from  Europe  who  trod  the  soil  of  the  New 
World,  according  to  the  received  records  of  history, 
were  the  representatives  of  Christian  nations.  The 
discovery  of  America  was  itself  a  Christian  enterprise, 
so  understood.  Christopher  Columbus  was  not  only 
the  discoverer  of  the  New  World,  but  the  agent  by 
whom  Christian  authority  was  brought  from  the  Old 
World  to  the  New  ;  and  through  Christopher  Columbus, 
acting  by  the  express  authority  of  Christian  sovereigns, 
so  acknowledged  by  the  nations  of  the  earth,  our  coun- 


90  THE    AMERICAN    STATE, 

try  holds,  through  the  succession  of  ages  and  countries, 
her  civil  authority  in  a  direct  and  unbroken  line  from 
its  very  beginning  on  earth  ;  and  more  particularly  as 
regards  Christian  right  and  obligation  from  the  Roman 
Empire,  after  it  became  a  Christian  power  by  the  act 
of  Constantine. 

The  rights  of  Christianity  as  a  sovereign  power  in 
all  civil  as  well  as  in  all  religious  affairs  existed  poten- 
tially in  the  will  and  power  of  God  himself,  in  a  certain 
sense,  before  the  worlds  were  made ;  but  that  sov- 
ereignty in  civil  affairs  was  recognized  for  the  first  time 
on  earth  by  Constantine  as  the  representative  of  aii 
actual  and  organized  government ;  and  that  recognition 
was  not  only  for  the  Roman  Empire,  but  for  civil 
authority  itself  throughout  the  world  for  all  time,  re- 
maining unbroken  through  all  forms  and  changes  of 
government.  A  principle  meant  for  all  time  when  once 
recognized  is  recognized  for  all  time,  and  is  binding 
upon  all  nations  and  all  men  for  all  time. 

That  Columbus  did  not  actually  found  a  positive  gov- 
ernment on  the  main  continent  of  America  makes  no 
difference  in  the  validity  of  civil  authority  under  Chris- 
tian sanction,  brought  through  his  agency.  He  estab- 
lished such  authority  in  several  of  the  American  islands, 
and  the  germ  would  have  been  a  true  germ  if  it  had 
been  planted  in  the  smallest  island  that  lifts  its  head 
from  American  waters.  Besides,  his  successors,  ex- 
tending the  authority  first  planted  by  him,  and  acting, 
like  him,  by  the  sanction  of  Christian  sovereigns,  con- 


AMERICA    A    CHRISTIAN    POWER.  9I 

tinued  the  unbroken  line  of  Christian  ascendency  in 
civil  affairs,  which  potentially  exists  now  in  our  own 
land,  waiting  to  be  avowed,  developed,  and  defended. 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  rights  of  Christian  sovereignty 
were  planted  in  the  New  World  very  long  before  the 
settlements  made  by  the  subjects  of  the  British  crown. 
Those  settlements  have  had  very  important  conse- 
quences, but  they  were  simply  incidental  as  regards 
the  principle  considered. 

Nor  will  it  make  any  difference  whatever  in  the  argu- 
ment, if  it  shall  be  plainly  proved  that  the  Northmen 
came  to  America  centuries  before  Columbus  ;  for  the 
point  is,  that  Columbus  conveyed  civil  authority  from  a 
Christian  state  to  the  New  World,  —  a  Christian  state 
which  had  undergone  many  changes,  but  which  was 
one  of  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire  when  it 
became  Christian.  If  the  Northmen  were  Christians 
and  came  by  authority,  that  authority  must  be  traced 
to  Constantine,  who  was  the  first  to  recognize  Christian 
sovereignty  in  the  state  and  over  the  state  ;  and  if 
they  were  not  Christians,  they  could  not  bring  what 
they  did  not  own. 

To  go  no  further  back  than  the  Christian  era,  then, 
it  follows  —  to  present  the  points  again  —  that  our 
country  derives  her  civil  authority  by  succession  of 
governments  from  the  Roman  Empire  before  it  became 
Christian,  and  has  the  right  and  is  really  bound  to 
recognize  Christian  sovereignty  in  the  state,  in  all 
affairs  within  the  just  jurisdiction  of  the  state,  because 


92  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

she  derives  both  the  right  and  the  obhgation  to  do  so 
from  the  Roman  Empire,  after  it  became  Christian. 
Those  who  prefer  to  trace  civil  authority  in  America  no 
further  than  Plymouth  Rock  and  Jamestown  can  stop 
there  if  they  choose  ;  but  if  they  go  back  in  their  own 
chosen  line,  they  will  finally  reach  the  throne  of  Con- 
stantine  the  Great,  the  founder  of  the  great  Christian 
empire  of  the  East ;  and  also,  in  a  certain  sense,  the 
founder  of  what  may  prove  the  yet  greater  Christian 
empire  of  the  West. 

I  speak  but  relatively  in  calling  Constantine  the 
founder  of  the  first  Christian  empire.  No  man  can 
really  found  an  empire,  though  he  may  combine  and 
extend  its  powers,  or  may  own,  as  Constantine  did,  that 
the  rights  of  God  are  before  and  above  the  rights  of 
man.  Authority  is  continuous,  like  the  life  of  nature, 
through  all  changes  and  apparent  destructions.  It 
takes  no  more  from  the  praise  due  to  Washington  that 
the  materials  for  an  independent  country  and  the  sanc- 
tions of  its  power  existed  before  his  day,  and  without 
regard  to  the  claims  of  the  British  crown,  than  that  the 
marble  stands  ready  in  the  quarry  for  the  sculptor's 
chisel,  or  that  myriad  colors,  lights,  and  shades  wait 
eager  to  spring  to  the  canvas  at  the  painter's  call. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  Washington  habitually 
nerved  and  renewed  the  strength  of  his  soul  at  the 
inexhaustible  Fountain  of  strength.  On  Washington 
leading  his  soldiers,  so  few  yet  patriotic  and  heroic,  the 
patriots  of  all  ages  might  look  with  rapture  and  hope. 


AMERICA    A    CHRISTIAN    POWER.  93 

On  Washington,  in  some  obscure  headquarters  of  his 
army,  with  his  maps  and  the  reports  of  trusty  messen- 
gers before  him,  studying  by  the  lonely  lamp  at  mid- 
night the  ways  and  means  of  resistance,  every  armed 
defender  of  right  that  ever  lived,  and  who  had  to  con- 
sider how  he  could  be  "  able  with  ten  thousand  to  meet 
him  that  cometh  against  him  with  twenty  thousand," 
might  look  with  eager  sympathy.  Washington  victo- 
rious and  receiving  the  applause  and  thanks  of  his 
countrymen  as  he  journeyed  from  city  to  city,  over 
ways  covered  with  flowers  and  bedewed  with  tears  of 
joy,  and  welcomed  by  songs  from  the  voices  of  thou- 
sands of  children,  joined  by  the  chorus  of  resounding 
bells,  was  a  spectacle  on  which  Roman  conquerors, 
crowned  with  laurels,  not  always  for  serving  their  coun- 
try, but  often  for  destroying  the  freedom  of  some  other 
land  and  bringing  it  under  the  iron  hand  of  Rome,  might 
look  with  jealousy  and  envy  ;  for  their  triumph,  more 
frequently  than  otherwise,  came  from  power  subjecting 
all  that  is  dearest  to  man,  while  Washington's  victory 
was  that  of  all  that  is  dearest  to  man  over  the  strong 
arm  of  power.  Washington,  at  the  head  of  the  govern- 
ment, presiding  with  unyielding  rectitude  and  honor, 
and  with  the  true  yet  stately  courtesy  of  the  olden 
time,  was  a  spectacle  on  which  all  the  rulers  of  the 
world  might  look  as  on  a  noble  example  of  all  that  is 
lofty  and  chivalric  in  personal  character  and  of  all  that 
is  noble,  just,  and  fearless  in  administration.  Yet  a 
spectacle  more  sublime  than  Washington  at  the  front 


94  THE    AMERICAN    STATE, 

of  his  small  but  unflinching  army;  or  than  Washing- 
ton at  his  headquarters,  calm,  patient,  energetic,  among 
intense  anxieties  ;  or  than  Washington  receiving  the 
homage  of  grateful  tears  and  grateful  shouts  and  grate- 
ful songs ;  or  than  Washington,  as  the  chief  ruler  of 
his  ransomed  country,  beloved  and  revered  by  all, — 
more  sublime  than  all  these  was  Washington  on  his 
knees,  with  head  bared,  and  with  folded  hands  uplifted, 
under  the  shadow  of  the  forest  tree,  in  earnest  prayer 
to  God  to  help  him  save  his  country  from  her  foes  by 
His  almighty  arm.  On  that  spectacle  not  only  patriots 
and  heroes,  conquerors  and  rulers,  but  all  the  angels 
of  Heaven  might  look  with  tenderness  and  awe. 

Could  such  a  spot  as  that  have  been  marked  at  the 
time  and  be  known  now,  though  it  were  in  the  heart 
of  a  busy  city,  how  reverently  would  it  be  regarded  ! 
And  should  the  stranger  ask  why  that  spot  is  kept  so 
sacred,  and  bright  with  living  green,  while  over 'it  the 
aged  oak  rears  its  great  branches  high,  though  all 
around  flows  the  clamoring  tide  of  trade,  he  would  be 
told  that,  on  that  spot,  the  Father  of  his  Country 
knelt,  in  his  days  of  patriotic  agony,  in  prayer  for  the 
help  and  guidance  of  God  ;  that  every  branch  of  that 
old  oak,  which  sheltered  the  bared  head  of  Washington 
while  he  was  imploring  the  favor  of  God  for  his  coun- 
try, is  guarded  and  bound  with  tender  care ;  and 
that,  whenever  the  leaves  of  that  old  oak  of  the  Rev- 
olution wave  gently  in  the  wind,  they  seem  yet  to 
quiver    with    the    ascending    prayers    of   Washington. 


AMERICA   A   CHRISTIAN    POWER,  95 

Though  no  man  can  tell  that  spot,  it  is  marked  on 
God's  map.  There  it  shines  in  immortal  green.  That 
tree  may  have  been  burned  to  ashes  many  a  year 
ago,  or  it  may  have  formed  a  part  of  some  ship  that 
bore  her  country's  flag,  and  upheld  its  honor  at  sea ; 
but,  in  the  memory  of  the  omniscient  God,  that  tree 
yet  rears  its  majestic  branches,  waves  its  leaves  to 
the  music  of  the  winds,  and  throws  around  its  sacred 
shade. 

The  Father  of  his  Country  may  anywhere  and  at 
any  time  have  sought  the  aid  of  his  Father  in  Heaven  ! 
And,  behind  his  features,  generally  so  grandly  calm, 
may  have  been  a  spirit  of  earnest  and  constant  en- 
treaty for  aid  from  the  armory  of  Heaven.  It  may 
have  been  as  true  of  him  as  it  is  of  others,  absorbed 
in  the  cares  of  life,  that  supplication  can  be  set  to  the 
tune  of  any  fair  and  faithful  work.  As  chants  the 
sweet  singer  of  Oxford  :  — 

"  The  trivial  round,  the  common  task. 
Would  furnish  all  we  ought  to  ask ; 
Room  to  deny  ourselves ;   a  road 
To  bring  us,  daily,  nearer  God." 

The  sounding  strokes  of  the  anvil  may  be  the 
chorus  of  a  thankful  heart,  inspiring  the  strong  arm 
that  wields  the  heavy  sledge.  The  bright  plough- 
share may  reflect  the  shining  soul  of  him  who  ploughs 
and  sows  and  reaps  in  simple,  daily  faith.  "  The 
dizzy  mast"  may  prove  to  be  one  of  the  firm,  endur- 
ing pillars  of  the  gate  of  Heaven.     The  dreary  mine 


96  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

may  dazzle  with  the  presence  of  God.  The  ledger 
filled  with  names  and  figures  may  be  a  beautiful,  me- 
lodious liturgy  of  praise  and  prayer,  if  the  merchant 
looks  it  over  to  see  not  how  little  but  how  much  he 
can  bestow  to  advance  on  earth  the  kingdom  of  his 
Saviour-God.  Every  good  deed  done  on  earth  strikes 
one  of  the  unseen  chords  of  that  "  vast,  mystic  instru- 
ment" of  the  universe,  of  which  Dana  sings,  thrills 
along  its  electric  line,  until  it  reaches  the  choirs  of 
Heaven,  and  breathes  a  new  note  of  joy  upon  their 
responsive  harps. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


No  event  in  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  has  more 
historical  sublimity,  and,  all  the  more,  because  he  had 
no  thought  of  anything  historical  or  sublime  about  it, 
than  when,  while  his  neighbors  thronged  around  him, 
to  bid  him  farewell,  as  he  was  about  to  leave  Spring- 
field—  never,  as  it  proved,  to  see  it  again  —  to  become 
the  ruler  of  a  distracted  nation,  he  besought  their 
prayers  to  God  for  him,  that  he  might  serve  his  coun- 
try faithfully  and  well,  through  all  the  toils  and  perils 
before  him. 

I  seem  to  see  Abraham  Lincoln  as  he  will  stand 
transfigured  by  revering  ages  in  the  glorious  company 
of  all  who  lived  and  died  for  right.  He  stands  in 
patient  yet  firm  reliance.  His  eyes  are  tearless,  yet 
seem  to  be  brimming  with  that  peculiar  tenderness 
which  comes  from  suffering  nobly  borne.  The  fur- 
rows and  ridges  of  his  face  are  there,  for  they  are  the 
marks  of  untold  anguish  for  his  country's  cause,  of 
the  sorrows  of  a  heart  that  would  have  given  no  need- 
less pang  to  any  living  thing,  yet  was  compelled  by 
loyalty  to  God  and  to  his  country  to  send  armies  to 
5  G 


98  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

meet  armies  in  fierce,  defiant  war.  The  marks  of 
anxious  ardor  and  suffering  for  the  sake  of  others  are 
the  heraldic  signs  of  heroes  and  martyrs,  the  coat  of 
arms  of  that  nobiUty  whose  titles  bear  the  sign-man- 
ual of  God.  Let  no  painter  or  sculptor,  led  by  any 
theory  of  art  against  truth  and  nature,  seek  to  soften  or 
erase  them.  Let  them  stay  on  the  painter's  canvas  and 
in  monumental  marble.  They  are,  like  the  wounds  of 
the  Christians  under  the  claws  of  the  lions  in  the 
amphitheatres  of  Pagan  Rome,  sacred  forever.  What 
is  more  beautiful  than  the  rough  and  rugged  ridges  of 
the  mountains,  illumined  by  the  golden  glory  of  the 
morning  sun  ?  What  is  more  beautiful  ?  The  face  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  more  beautiful,  when  over  its 
ridges  of  anxiety  played  the  clear  sunlight  of  a  patri- 
otic faith  which  no  reverse  could  darken. 

The  words  of  Lincoln,  like  himself,  were  often  rough 
in  form,  yet  through  them  his  thoughts  flashed  like 
diamonds,  which,  if  not  set  in  gold,  were  diamonds 
still ;  and,  at  times,  his  periods  had  a  rhythmic  rise 
and  fall  of  playful  fancy  or  of  tearful  grace,  which  no 
poet  could  have  tuned  to  purer,  sweeter  harmony. 
He  was  a  deep,  wise,  thorough  man,  deeper,  wiser, 
more  thorough  than  his  countrymen  knew.  In  coun- 
cil he  might  be  as  bending  as  the  bow,  yet,  in  act,  he 
could  be  as  unbending  as  the  oak.  W'hcn  he  led  he 
was  more  often  right  than  when  he  followed.  He 
was  not  always  quick  to  see,  but  he  was  sure  to  sec ; 
and,  when  he  saw,  he  struck.     His  will  moved  about 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  99 

SO  readily  and  playfully  upon  the  waves,  that  some, 
thought  he  could  be  drawn  this  way  or  that,  at  pleas- 
ure ;  but,  when  they  tried,  they  found  that  his  will  was 
anchored  fast.  It  might  move  around,  not  often  from 
its  anchorage.  He  was  greater  than  his  fame  for 
greatness  ;  and  the  more  he  is  studied,  the  greater  he 
is  seen  to  be.  He  proved  a  sure  and  faithful  guide 
as  well  as  a  true  patriot.  He  was  a  mine  of  precious 
worth,  which,  the  more  it  is  explored,  the  richer  it  is 
found  to  be.  His  suavity  hid  from  many  his  sagacity. 
His  wit  was  but  the  out-door  exercise  of  an  inner 
man  that  was  profoundly  serious  and  earnest.  He 
did  not  generally  run  over  an  obstacle  rough-shod ; 
but  he  would  put  the  obstacle  aside  —  it  might  be 
some  wild,  mazy,  incompetent,  half-hearted,  or  officious 
man  —  so  gently  yet  so  thoroughly,  that  the  obstacle 
itself  would  look  round  and  wonder  how  it  was  done. 
No  man  could  have  so  deeply  impressed  so  many  as 
Lincoln  did,  if  he  had  been  eminent  by  place  alone. 
Arduous  duty  has  often  brought  out,  but  it  never 
created,  worth.  The  post  of  honor  and  power  often 
lifts  the  lowly  and  degrades  the  proud,  but  it  never 
yet  made  true  manhood  out  of  soulless  souls  or  pure 
gold  out  of  brass. 

The  soldiers  fighting  for  their  country  lifted  their 
feet  in  the  weary  march  with  a  new  spring  of  loyal 
zeal,  in  the  hour  of  combat  they  stood  firmer  and 
stronger,  and  in  the  silence  of  their  tents  they  felt 
their   hearts   grow  warmer   for   their   country's  cause, 


lOO  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

even  among  the  thronging  memories  of  home,  when 
they  thought  of  some  fervent,  patriotic  appeal  of  Abra- 
ham Lincohi,  equally  inspired  by  a  tender  heart  and 
a  fearless  will.  Lincoln  won  and  kept  the  hearts  of 
the  soldiers  through  the  war.  Had  he  not  been  a 
true,  noble,  glorious  man,  he  could  not  have  done 
that ;  and  the  man  who  could  do  that,  as  Lincoln  did, 
was  a  treasury  of  inspiring  ardor.  The  warm  heart 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  like  an  army  for  his  coun- 
try's cause.  No  man  can  measure  the  value  of  Lin- 
coln's calm  and  steadfast  fortitude  in  the  early  months 
of  the  war,  when  the  country,  startled  into  self-defence 
by  combinations  which,  perhaps,  had  been  for  years 
secretly  planned,  found  herself  unprepared  for  the 
great  and  unexpected  conflict.  For  months  before 
he  had  any  right  to  speak  or  to  act,  these  combina- 
tions had  been  caressed,  allowed,  if  not  approved,  by 
the  very  man,  who,  as  President,  should  have  crushed 
them  at  once  with  all  the  resources  at  his  command. 
Had  President  Buchanan  seen  that  the  oath  to  sup- 
port the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  did  not 
destroy,  but  really  confirmed  what  ought  to  have  been 
his  oath  on  his  knees  before  God,  to  try  to  save  his 
country  at  all  hazards,  and  had  he  acted  accordingly, 
perhaps  there  would  have  been  no  war.  Without  a 
country,  of  what  use  would  be  the  Constitution  .-*  Lin- 
coln had  to  receive  as  his  immediate,  official  inher- 
itance the  terrible  weight  of  responsibility  laid  upon 
his  shoulders  by  a  man  who,  as  President,  proved  to 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  lOI 

be,  if  not  morally  a  traitor,  so  nearly  one  that  the  di- 
viding line  is  like  one  of  those  "  infinitely  small  quan- 
tities" which,  the  mathematicians  say,  can  be  safely 
neglected. 

A  weak  man,  or  a  merely  sentimental  patriot,  or  a 
man  without  earnest,  ardent  feeling,  nerved  by  an 
inflexible  will,  occupying  the  post  of  the  Presidency 
when  Lincoln  did,  would  have  been  a  fearful,  possibly 
a  fatal  obstacle.  Thank  God  —  thank  Him  forever  — 
Lincoln  was  a  strong  man.  He  was  no  sentimental 
patriot ;  for,  though  he  loved  his  country  as  a  true 
man  loves  a  true  woman,  as  a  true  woman  loves  a 
true  man,  his  affection  arose  from  no  accidental  or 
incidental  caprices.  Lincoln's  love  for  his  country 
was  a  part  of  himself  He  was  chosen  by  his  coun- 
trymen to  be  their  ruler,  and  he  accepted  the  solemn 
trust  for  life  or  for  death  ;  and,  though  it  proved  to 
be  for  death  to  himself,  it  was  for  the  life  of  his  coun- 
try. Let  no  man  deny  to  Abraham  Lincoln  his  just 
honor.  So  far  as  so  great  a  praise  can  be  claimed 
for  any  one  man,  Lincoln  was  the  savior  of  his 
country. 

One  anxiety  Abraham  Lincoln  should  not  have  had 
to  bear.  His  propositions  to  his  Cabinet,  there  is 
great  reason  to  fear,  had  to  encounter  cross-examina- 
tions from  Presidential  desires.  They  might  be  right, 
just,  seasonable;  but  would  they  favor  this  Secre- 
tary's hopes  of  the  Presidency,  and,  if  they  did,  would 
they   not   oppose   another's.-'    and    should    they    favor 


102  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

either,  would  they  not  diminish  another's  ?  or,  oppos- 
ing all,  would  they  not  favor  some  one  outside  the 
Cabinet,  who  might  presume  to  aspire  to  the  Presi- 
dency ?  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  the  generous  simplicity 
of  his  trustful  nature,  called  his  disappointed  rivals 
around  him  to  be  his  constitutional  advisers.  He 
would  have  done  a  thousand  times  better  without 
them.  And  so  would  the  country.  The  public  need 
of  unity  of  administration  was  far  greater  than  that  of 
the  divided  counsels  of  eminent  men,  —  personal  friends, 
no  doubt,  but  also  personal  rivals.  Cabinet  ministers, 
of  less  abstract  ability,  perhaps,  but  having  public  views 
less  refracted  by  private  aims,  would  have  been  more 
useful.  Cabinet  ministers  are  the  confidential  ser- 
vants, not  the  partners  of  the  Executive  ;  and  when 
they  seek  or  strive  to  be  anything  else,  they  violate 
alike  their  personal  and  their  official  honor.  If  they 
cannot  give  an  opinion  which  is  not  colored  by  their 
personal  ambition,  their  plain  duty  is  to  give  place  to 
others  who  will  at  least  try  to  do  so. 

Abraham  Lincoln  had  to  face  the  music  of  the 
Cabinet  which  he  had  himself  chosen  ;  and  distract- 
ing music  it  was.  Out  of  the  tumultuous  discord  one 
voice  at  least  rang  clear,  strong,  and  true  ;  and  that 
was  the  voice  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  strove  with 
the  single  sincerity  of  his  heart  and  with  the  power 
of  his  mild  yet  firm  will  to  be  true  to  his  trust,  hav- 
ing to  encounter  avowed,  armed,  and  open  enemies, 
and    also   friends  whose    desire    to    succeed    him   was 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  IO3 

probably  as  great  as  their  desire  to  have  their  coun- 
try succeed. 

If  any  man  on  earth  has  a  harder  choice  to  make, 
in  selecting  Cabinet  ministers,  than  an  American 
President,  point  him  out.  If  he  shall  choose  nobodies 
for  his  Cabinet,  the  public  business  must  suffer  from  in- 
competency ;  if  he  shall  choose  somebodies,  then  each 
somebody  will  have  at  his  elbow,  at  Cabinet  meetings, 
the  ghost,  not  of  some  Presidency  that  has  been,  but 
of  some  Presidency  that  hopes  to  be  ;  and  every  sug- 
gestion made  about  national  affairs  must  be  referred 
for  a  decision  to  each  ghost  of  the  Presidency  that 
hopes  to  be  ;  and  the  ghosts  are  each  at  war  with 
each,  and  all  very  politely  but  very  bitterly  at  war 
with  him  who  holds  the  office  which  their  patrons 
want.  Navigation  must  be  always  hard  and  some- 
times dangerous,  if  the  captain  tries  to  follow  the 
ship's  compass,  and  his  officers  try  to  go  by  com- 
passes of  their  own,  which  obey  the  magnets  of  their 
contrary  desires,  instead  of  pointing  to  the  north. 

All  lands  honor,  as  all  ages  will,  Lincoln's  genial 
simplicity,  his  loving  heart,  his  trusting  spirit,  his  un- 
bending will,  his  ardent  patriotism,  his  thoughtful  yet 
working  wisdom,  his  eminent  and  triumphant  services. 
Throughout  the  world,  in  homage  to  such  nobleness, 
the  laborer  lifts  his  toil-worn  hands  and  the  king  lifts 
his  royal  crown.  There  are,  indeed,  more  splendid 
names  on  the  historic  page,  some  crowned  with  rays 
as  from  the  throne  of  God  himself,  others  with  bale- 


I04  THE    AMERICAN    STATE, 

ful  fires  of  wild  ambition  ;  yet,  as  Abraham  Lincoln 
stands  on  the  summit  of  his  true  and  wide  renown, 
all  the  world  can  sec  how  all  the  gems  of  Persia  fade 
before  the  starry  light  which  flows  from  the  patriot- 
martyr's  brow. 

Look  where  Abraham  Lincoln  stands  in  undying 
fame.  A  vast  throng  approaches.  On  one  side  they 
come,  a  long  array,  and  still  they  come,  and,  as  far  as 
the  eye  can  see,  they  yet  are  coming,  as  well  they 
may  come  gladly,  crowding  on.  They  have  dark 
faces,  but  illumined  hearts.  They  are  free.  No  one 
owns  them  now  but  God.  Yet  they  seem  bound  to- 
gether as  of  old  ;  and  so  they  are,  but  sec  how  they 
are  bound.  As  they  approach,  wreaths  and  chains  of 
flowers  of  every  hue  are  about  their  heads  and  about 
their  necks,  and  extend  from  hand  to  hand,  filhng  the 
air  with  fragrance.  Flowers  upon  flowers  are  borne 
aloft  and  onward  by  the  grateful  throngs.  Red,  white, 
and  blue  —  the  rose,  the  lily,  and  the  violet  —  are  inter- 
woven there  in  rich  and  sweet  profusion.  The  blush- 
ing, quivering  mimosa  blends  with  vines  of  golden 
jessamine  ;  the  grand  magnolia  opens  wide  its  fragrant, 
pearly  shell,  and  evergreens  of  every  kind  arc  inter- 
twined with  all.  Now  the  vast  multitude  throw  to- 
gether in  a  thankful,  fragrant  monument  their  floral 
fetters,  that  bear  no  stains  but  those  of  tears  of  eager, 
triumphant  joy.  They  kneel  at  their  deliverer's  feet, 
and  lift  their  hands  and  voices  high,  and  sing  to 
God  a  song  of  grateful  praise,  and  this  is  the  refrain  : 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN,  IO5 

A  race  from  bondage  freed,  a  nation  saved  ;  thanks  be 
to  God  on  high,  thanks  be  to  him  who  did  the  will  of 
God! 

Look  on  the  other  side.  Thousands,  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  soldiers  are  there,  drawn  up  in  ranks  after 
ranks,  columns  after  columns,  arrayed  in  loyal  blue, 
Heaven's  own  color  for  Heaven's  own  cause ;  and 
among  them,  in  cordial  harmony,  are  the  sailors,  who 
on  the  deck  were  as  heroic  as  their  brothers  on  the 
field.  Innumerable  starry  banners  are  waving  in 
the  wind,  and  martial  music  rolls  along  the  lines  in 
ocean-waves  of  melody.  The  great  host  march  on  in 
a  grand  review  before  the  ruler  of  his  country,  who 
was  true  to  his  trust,  as  they  were  true  to  theirs.  In 
the  sunshine  gleam  their  arms  of  steel.  From  their 
eyes  flames  forth  the  patriotic  fire  which  glowed  on 
fields  and  decks  for  country  and  for  God.  The  soldiers 
and  sailors  stand  beside  the  kneeling  throngs.  Sud- 
denly the  martial  music  stops.  The  banners  wave, 
but  not '  a  voice  is  heard.  Hark !  now  there  is  a 
sound.  The  roll  is  called,  the  living  roll  of  the  im- 
mortal dead,  the  names  of  those  who  fell  to  save 
their  country,  who  died  in  battle,  were  wounded  unto 
death,  or  who,  in  hospitals,  worn  out  by  fatal  mala- 
dies, yielded  their  lives  to  God  with  one  regret  alone, 
that  they  could  not  have  died,  wounded  or  slain  in 
conflict.  Their  names  are  called,  the  names  of  the 
pale  yet  glorious  throng  who  no  more  can  speak  on 
earth  ;  yet,  as  each  name  is  called  in  a  clear,  resound- 
5* 


I06  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

ing  voice,  with  a  tone  as  clear,  resounding,  some 
comrade  answers,  "  Here  "  ;  and  each  name  goes  round, 
repeated  from  lips  to  lips  of  "  numbers  without  num- 
ber." Now  the  vast  multitude,  the  standing  guard 
of  honor  of  loyal  soldiers  and  sailors,  joined  by  the 
sympathetic  souls,  if  not  the  ringing  voices,  of  the 
fallen  comrades  "  Here,"  the  kneeling  crowds  of  the 
freed,  and  the  innumerable  hosts  of  the  people  that 
have  come  from  all  the  land,  swell  the  same  resounding 
chorus  through  the  air,  while  instrumental  tones  lift 
and  spread  the  vocal  harmony:  A  race  from  bondage 
freed,  a  nation  saved ;  thanks  be  to  God  on  high, 
thanks  be  to  him  who  did  the  will  of  God ! 

The  thousands  of  loyal  soldiers  and  sailors,  the 
throngs  of  the  freed,  the  greater  throngs  of  the  rest 
of  the  thankful  people,  slowly  yet  reverently  leave  the 
historic  presence  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  not  deserted, 
but  attended  by  all  patriotic  hopes,  by  all  patriotic 
memories,  by  all  patriotic  thanks  from  countless  mil- 
lions of  all  time.  They  go  repeating  the  inspiring 
sounds  of  praise  until  they  reverberate  through  all  the 
waving  forests  of  the  land,  through  all  its  shaded  val- 
leys, over  all  its  towering  mountains,  through  every 
embowered  village,  through  every  crowded  city.  The 
anthem  swells  with  the  waves  of  Northern  lakes  ;  it 
mingles  with  the  sublime,  unresting  roar  of  Niagara; 
and  near  by,  while  Niagara  joins  like  an  organ  in  the 
harmony,  it  delays  to  chant  its  tender  homage,  blend- 
ing heroic  sorrow  with  heroic  joy  over  the  grave  of  the 


ABRAHAM    LINXOLN.  lO/ 

young  patriot,  Porter,  found  "dead  upon  the  field  of 
honor,"  pierced  with  more  than  thirty  wounds.  At 
soldiers'  homes  the  anthem  lingers ;  and  betrothed 
maidens,  youthful  wives,  heroic  mothers,  pressing  to 
their  hearts  again  the  pictured  faces  of  loved  ones 
they  nevermore  shall  see  on  earth,  seem  to  baptize 
with  holy  tears  each  echoing  word  of  praise.  Gigantic 
rivers  of  our  land,  winding  along  from  pines  to  palms, 
from  snowy  mountains  to  the  far-off  sea,  in  all  their 
windings  wind  responsive  to  the' winding  song.  Over 
tens  of  thousands  of  soldiers'  graves  the  strains  delay. 
Each  rising  mound  of  earth  that  holds  a  hero's  form 
under  its  living  green  is  like  another  key  of  melody, 
which,  touched  by  sympathetic  tones,  joins  the  vast 
chorus  of  exulting  praise.  The  anthem  minglfes  with 
the  sounding  waves  of  the  Atlantic,  which  bear  it  to 
the  European  shore  ;  and  over  the  broad  land  it  rolls 
until  the  grand  Pacific  takes  the  sound  and  speeds  it 
to  the  islands  of  the  sea.  So,  onward,  onward,  on 
over  seas  of  time  and  seas  of  space,  the  anthem 
goes,  sounding,  resounding,  echoing  through  choral 
ages,  while  patriot  sires  bend  with  patriot  sons  from 
Heaven  to  hear  and  join  the  glad  acclaim :  A  race 
from  bondage  freed,  a  nation  saved ;  thanks  be  to 
God  on  high,  thanks  be  to  him  who  did  the  will 
of  God ! 


CHAPTER    IX. 

ORIGIN    OF    THE    EMPIRE    OF    NORTH    AMERICA. 

What  did  Abraham  Lincoln  save  by  the  loyal  aid 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  brave  men,  and  by  as 
great  self-devotion  and  self-sacrifice  of  a  lo3-al  and 
determined  people  as  was  ever  known  before  ?  He 
saved  the  nation.  What  is  meant  by  that  ?  Are  the 
United   States  a  nation  ?     Yes. 

I  have  said  before  that  Christopher  Columbus,  as 
the  authorized  agent  of  a  sovereign  power,  brought 
civil  authority  from  Europe  to  America.  Civil  author- 
ity began  on  earth  as  soon  as  there  were  men  need- 
ing to  be  ruled.  It  cannot  be  created  by  any  man. 
It  is  the  gift  of  God  for  human  government,  and  is 
transmitted  under  many  changes  from  age  to  age. 
It  is  as  impossible  for  any  man  or  for  any  number 
of  men,  a  hundred  thousand  or  a  hundred  millions, 
by  their  own  will  and  power,  to  form  an  entirely 
new  government,  as  it  would  be  for  them,  singly  or 
combined,  to  make  a  new  planet  or  a  blade  of  grass, 
or  to  rub  out  the  past  and  begin  the  world  again,  as 
was  tried  in  France.  Human  genius  has,  indeed, 
often  combined  national  materials  in  sublime  and  en- 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    EMPIRE    OF    NORTH    AMERICA.       IO9 

during  forms,  and  may  again,  as  architects  design 
cathedrals,  as  poets  write  epic  poems ;  but  in  all 
such  cases  there  was  the  pressure  of  all  the  ages 
before  towards  the  great  result.  You  cannot  blot 
out  the  past  without  blotting  out  the  present,  for  it 
becomes  the  past  while  you  are  blotting  out ;  and  so 
you  spend  in  pulling  down  the  time  which  God  gave 
you  for  building  up.  The  treasures  of  the  past  are 
the  armies  which  the  commanding  genius  of  the  present 
may  lead  to  higher  and  greater  victories.  Without  the 
powers  of  by-gone  ages  the  greatest  human  intelligence 
would  be  as  weak  as  a  general  without  soldiers,  a  king 
without  subjects,  or  a  ship  without  a  crew. 

Civil  authority  is  the  creature  of  God  and  of  him 
alone,  —  made  once  for  all  when  men  were  created. 
It  has  been  distorted  and  abused  by  man,  like  every 
other  gift  of  God,  but  it  is  a  trust,  and  not  an  origi- 
nal human  prerogative.  People  cannot  establish  gov- 
ernment :  government  establishes  the  people,  as  it  has 
a  divine  right  to  do,  whatever  may  be  its  outward 
form.  All  the  vast  changes  and  modifications  of  all 
the  nations  are  simply  the  changing  applications  of 
an  unchangeable  principle  ;  the  power  to  say,  in  its 
lawful  sphere,  as  the  agent,  not  of  the  sovereign  peo- 
ple, but  of  the  sovereign  God,  Thou  shalt,  and 
thou  shalt  not.  Behind  all  creation  is  the  Creator  ; 
behind  all  law,  the  great  Lawgiver  ;  behind  all  forms 
and  modes  of  government,  the  organic,  original  right 
to  govern.      Civil   authority  exists   by  the  decree   of 


no  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

God  before  and  after  all  constitutions.  The  govern- 
ing principle  precedes,  both  in  reason  and  in  time, 
the  loyal  consent  to  be  governed.  We  have  been  so 
accustomed  to  hear  "  inalienable  rights  "  spoken  of  as 
identical  with  popular  rights,  that  we  are  in  great 
danger  of  forgetting  that  rulers  have  "inalienable 
rights  "  as  well  as  the  ruled. 

I  admit  that  in  a  certain  sense  people  may  estab- 
lish a  government  ;  that  is,  at  some  times  and  places, 
as  delegates  of  Almighty  God,  they  may  apply  the  pri- 
mal and  eternal  principle,  government,  to  civil  afiairs. 
If  "sovereignty  of  the  people"  is  used  in  this  sense, — 
of  a  delegated  sovereignty,  —  though  such  a  phrase  is 
a  contradiction,  it  may  be  permitted,  if  it  gives  pleas- 
ure. But  it  is  an  objectionable  term  anyway,  and  is 
open  to  very  general  misconstruction.  Vast  numbers 
who  use  the  term  "  sovereignty  of  the  people  "  under- 
stand it  to  mean  that  rulers  are  the  servants  of  the 
people,  and  nothing  else  ;  that  they  are  responsible  to 
the  people,  and  to  no  one  else  ;  and  that  the  people 
themselves  are  responsible  to  nobody  and  to  nothing ; 
that  their  judgment  as  expressed  by  the  larger  number 
is  positive  law  and  immutable,  except  when  they 
reverse  it  of  their  own  accord.  This  is  a  theory  which 
annuls  alike  the  duty  of  man  and  the  law  of  God. 
Men,  in  applying  the  laws  of  nature  to  the  mariner's 
compass,  to  the  steam-engine,  to  the  telegraph,  to  the 
unnumbered  combinations  of  chemistry,  never  think  of 
callin":  themselves  "sovereign"    in   reference  to  those 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    EMPIRE    OF    NORTH    AMERICA.       I  I  I 

laws.  They  acknowledge  that  the  power  which  they 
try  to  use  for  the  benefit  of  man  is  beyond  and  above 
them  ;  that  they  did  not  and  could  not  create  it ;  and 
that  the  very  highest  aim  they  can  have  is,  to  apply 
it  with  the  most  success ;  yet  perhaps  the  same  men, 
when  they  come  to  apply  the  laws  of  government,  will 
hold  that  the  eternal  principle  of  authority  is  simply 
a  creature  of  their  own.  They  will  admit  that  the 
law  of  magnetic  attraction  is  independent  of  their  will, 
and  that  they  must  conform  to  it,  if  they  wish  to  use 
it ;  but  the  immutable  and  divine  law  which  controls, 
or  ought  to  control,  all  human  beings,  as  members  of 
the  social  and  civil  state,  —  that  law,  they  think,  is 
nothing  but  their  own  will,  as  expressed  by  a  majority 
of  votes.  I  deny  that  the  people  have  any  more  sov- 
ereignty in  the  laws  of  civil  society  than  they  have 
in  the  laws  which  direct  the  mariner's  compass  and 
the  electric  telegraph.  In  the  word  "  people  "  as  here 
used  I  include  emperors,  kings,  presidents,  magis- 
trates of  all  kinds  and  degrees.  They  have  no  author- 
ity, except  as  representing  the  divine  and  eternal 
source  of  all  authority. 

In  some  forms  of  government  people  choose  their 
own  rulers.  That  is  well  enough,  if  it  is  understood 
that  people  cannot  confer  the  right  to  rule,  but  can 
only  say  who  shall  rule,  —  a  very  different  thing. 
Rulers,  once  chosen,  and  however  chosen,  though 
being  accountable  chiefly  to  God,  are  the  servants  of 
the  people,   just   as   by  divine  decree  the   sun    is  the 


112  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

servant  of  the  planets,  which  yet  draw  their  light, 
heat,  and  power  to  move  from  him  as  being  the  agent 
and  dispenser  of  a  higher  power.  Rulers,  exercising 
civil  rights  in  the  civil  sphere  or  spiritual  rights  in 
the  spiritual  sphere,  are  the  servants  of  the  people, 
blending  service  and  sovereignty  ;  and  though  mortal, 
they  represent  immortal  prerogatives,  in  the  same  way 
—  though  in  a  degree  infinitely  less,  because,  as  men, 
they  are  no  better  than  the  men  they  rule  —  as  our 
incarnate  God,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  is  in  loving 
mercy  the  servant  of  all,  while  being  in  eternal  power 
the  Lord  of  all. 

The  germ,  or,  rather,  the  new  shoot  of  the  old  prin- 
ciple of  civil  authority  which  was  brought  to  the  New 
World  by  Christopher  Columbus,  afterwards  grew  to 
great  dimensions  under  other  auspices  than  those  of 
Spain,  —  noble  and  glorious  Spain,  to  whom,  notwith- 
standing all  her  faults,  no  greater,  probably,  than  those 
of  other  nations,  our  own  great  dominion  and  every 
other  in  the  New  World  is  indebted  for  the  rightful 
succession  of  lawful  rule  in  civil  society.  Whatever 
misfortunes  may  befall  Spain,  this  undccaying,  undy- 
ing glory  is  hers,  that  by  her  hands  the  sacred  fire 
of  Christian  sovereignty  in  civil  affairs,  first  actually 
kindled  in  the  great  empire  of  the  civilized  world  by 
Constantino,  though  by  right  existing  from  eternity, 
and  illuming  large  portions  of  three  continents  dur- 
ing the  existence  of  the  Christianized  Roman  Empire, 
and,  on  the  dissolution  of  that  empire,  being  diffused 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    EMPIRE    OF    NORTH    AMERICA.       II 3 

more  widely  than  ever,  the  nations  growing  out  of 
the  wreck  of  the  empire  retaining  through  their  con- 
vulsions the  essential  principle  which  made  them 
Christian  nations,  —  the  undying  glory  of  Spain  is, 
that  by  her  the  sovereignty  of  the  Christian  state  was 
handed  from  the  Old  World  to  the  New.  Spain,  like 
most  nations,  has  found  her  worst  enemies  within 
herself;  and  the  root  of  that  enmity  has  been  rebel- 
lion against  the  rights  of  God  :  but,  notwithstanding 
all  drawbacks  and  qualifications,  Spain  has  been  for 
ages  a  noble,  courageous  Christian  nation.  If  she 
shall  fall,  the  memory  of  her  triumphant  services  for 
Christian  ascendency  can  never  be  forgotten  or  over- 
valued ;  if  she  shall  rise  to  nobler  heights  of  national 
glory,  then  brighter  than  all  the  jewels  of  her  royal 
crown  will  be  the  reflected  splendor  of  that  light 
which  she  kindled  in  the  western  world. 

That  others,  beside  the  representatives  of  Spain, 
afterwards  availed  themselves  of  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World,  and  of  the  succession  of  Christian  sover- 
eignty so  secured,  is  historically  true  ;  but  they  could 
not  plant  what  had  been  already  planted,  they  could 
not  sow  what  had  been  already  sown,  they  could 
not  found  what  had  been  already  founded,  they 
could  not  do  or  undo  what  had  been  already  done. 
They  could  bring,  if  they  would,  their  own  civil  and 
religious  institutions,  but  those  institutions  became 
subject  to  the  claims  of  institutions  that  preceded 
them.     Not  that  the  people  of  the  New  World  were 


114  THE    AMERICAN    STATE, 

bound  for  all  time  to  render  allegiance  to  the  crown 
of  Spain.  That  is  not  meant.  It  was  not  the  claim 
of  Spain  simply  as  a  power  which  was  concerned. 
That  might  be  granted,  or  might  not  be.  I  am  stat- 
ing the  historical  fact,  and  contending  for  what  fol- 
lows from  that  fact,  that  through  Spain,  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  Christian  dominion,  came  from  the  Old 
World  to  the  New  alike  the  inalienable  right  and 
the  peremptory  obligation  to  establish  civil  society  and 
national  power  on  the  basis  of  the  Christian  faith. 

Civil  authority  was  growing  in  America  under  the 
benignant  shadow  of  the  Cross,  among  the  fragrant, 
blooming  flowers  of  St.  Augustine,  in  Florida,  long 
before  a  European  foot  was  set  on  the  icy  Plymouth 
Rock,  fit  emblem  alike  of  the  firm  endurance  and  of  the 
cold,  hard  faith  of  the  Pilgrims.  Yet  the  Pilgrims  of 
Plymouth  may  be  absolved  from  any  personal  share  in 
the  murder  of  their  king ;  and,  to  their  eternal  honor, 
they  dissented  from  much  of  the  tyranny  and  violence 
of  the  British  Puritans,  whose  malignity  afterwards  cul- 
minated in  that  awful  crime.  Neither  the  Pilgrims  nor 
the  Puritans  were  the  founders  of  the  empire  of  North 
America.  That  the  murderers  of  a  Christian  king 
should  have  laid  the  corner-stone  of  a  Christian  empire 
would  have  been  most  humiliating  and  preposterous. 
God  be  praised,  they  did  not.  That  corner-stone  was 
laid  by 'the  hands  of  Spain  long  before  Charles  the 
First  came  to  his  thorny  throne  under  a  bloody  star. 

As  regards  the  obligations  of  the  world  to  Spain,  I 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    EMPIRE    OF    NORTH    AMERICA.       II5 

have   spoken    in   general  terms,   having  in  view  such 
glorious  achievements  as  the  discovery  of  America  and 
laying  the  foundation  of  the  empire  of  the  West,  the 
expulsion  of  the  Moors  from  Spain,  and  the  restoration 
to  Christian  rule  of  the  lands  which  those  enemies  of 
the  faith  had  so  long  and  so  defiantly  profaned  ;  and 
the  fact  that  wherever  a  Spanish  soldier  or  civilian  went 
by  order  of  the  Crown,  he  planted  the  Cross.     I  am 
not  defending  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  though  I  doubt 
whether,  among  its  authentic  records,  from  beginning 
to  end,  or  among  the  cruelties  attributed  to  it  by  popu- 
lar belief,  there  has  ever  been,  or  has  ever  been  ascril^ed, 
any  greater  atrocity  than  the  murder  of  Sir  Thomas 
More,  the  murder  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  the  murder 
of  Charles  the  First  of  England,  the  murder  of  Arch- 
bishop Laud,  the  murder  of  Archbishop  Plunkett,  or 
■  the  massacre  of  the  brave  and  confiding  Highlanders 
of  Glencoe.     Nor  am  I  defending  the  way  in  which 
Spanish  authority  has  been  at  times  maintained.     Yet, 
if  Philip  the  Second  was  hard  and  cruel  in  setting  the 
dogs  of  war  upon  the  people  of  Holland,  Oliver  Crom- 
well was  no  less  hard  and  cruel  in  letting  loose  his 
tigers  upon  the  people  of  Ireland.     There  is  much  to 
honor  and  revere   in   the  history  of  England,  though 
there  is  frequent  occasion   for  indignation   and  grief; 
and  so  the  glory  of  Spain  immeasurably  exceeds  her 
shame. 

A  single  settlement  and  the  prior  settlement  made 
by  the  sanction  of  a  Christian  power  on  a  new  con- 


Il6  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

tinent  is  the    original   germ    of  authentic  nationality, 
however  feeble  its  beginning,  or  however  widely  other 
Christian  powers  may  subsequently  extend  their  set- 
tlements on  the  same  continent.     America  was  in   a 
condition  entirely  different  from  Europe,  Asia,  or  Af- 
rica as  regards  the  sanctions  of  Christian  nationality. 
Europe  had  been  already  subdivided  for  centuries  by 
the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  deriving  vast  intellect- 
ual treasures  from  that  greatest  of  all  political  wrecks, 
but,  as  the  most  imperishable  and  unchangeable  inher- 
itance, Christian  sanction  for  civil  institutions.     A  part 
of  Asia  had  been  under  Christian  rule,  which  had  been 
overv/helmed  by  the  Mohammedan  invasion  ;   but  the 
right  of  Christian  rule  was  not  alienated  by  that  cir- 
cumstance :  for  it  is  the  right  of  Christianity  to  rule 
the  world  ;   and  the  right,  once  recognized  anywhere, 
at  once  gains  the  seal  of  perpetuity,  no  matter  what 
may  occur  to  oppress  or  to  crush  it.     A  large  part  of 
Asia,  however,  was  divided  into  independent  govern- 
ments, having  a  Pagan  civilization,  which  had  a  right 
to  exist  as  long  as  they  recognized  in  their  intercourse 
with  other  nations  the  natural  law  of  justice.     Africa 
was  in  a  somewhat  similar  position.     Northern  Africa, 
having  once  been  a  part  of  a  Christian  empire,  could 
never  lose  the  right  to  Christian  sovereignty,  even  by 
the  lapse  of  thousands  of  years  of  Mohammedan   or 
Pagan  usurpation  ;  while  the  larger  part  of  Africa  was 
occupied  by  barbarous  tribes,  which  could   hardly  be 
recognized  as  nations  even  by  natural  law. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    EMPIRE    OF    NORTH    AMERICA,       11/ 

All  the  Spanish  settlements,  all  the  French  settle- 
ments, all  the  English  settlements,  in  North  America 
were  really  each  one  dominion,  acknowledging  respec- 
tively the  Spanish,  the  French,  or  the  English  crown. 
The  difiference  in  the  date  of  grants  could  not  keep 
separate,  except  for  convenience  of  administration,  the 
colonies  which  professed  the  same  allegiance.  As  there 
can  be  no  division  of  sovereignty,  so  there  can  be  no 
division  of  allegiance  when  it  is  rendered  to  the  same 
national  authority.  What  is  more  to  our  immediate 
purpose,  these  different  national  authorities,  however 
divergent  their  streams  may  be,  unite  in  drawing  the 
sanction  of  their  power  from  the  common  fountain,  and 
that  common  fountain  was  the  first  settlement  made 
by  the  consent,  approval,  and  direction  of  a  Christian 
state. 

Several  settlements  were  made  in  the  New  World 
previous  to  that  of  St.  Augustine  in  Florida,  though 
that  was  the  first  in  what  is  now  our  dominion.  The 
germ  of  the  empire  of  North  America  was  planted  on 
that  bright  October  day  when,  under  the  shadow  of  the 
palms,  Christopher  Columbus  knelt  in  homage  to  his 
God,  in  loyal  honor  lifted  the  Cross,  where  divine  sorrow 
for  a  day  became  the  spring  of  human  joy  forever,  and 
in  thankful  memory  of  his  Redeemer,  named  the  island 
which  first  felt  the  pressure  of  a  Christian's  knees  San 
Salvador.  The  New  World  that  was,  and,  consequently, 
the  North  American  empire  that  was  to  be,  was  con- 
secrated to  the  Christian  faith  then  and  there.     The 


Il8  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

act  was  authoritative,  final,  and  irrevocable,  defying  all 
lapse  of  time,  changes  of  allegiance  or  of  dynasties, 
political  transformations,  convulsions,  revolutions,  popu- 
lar sovereignty,  constitutions,  majorities,  or  minorities 
forever.  No  doubt  in  the  future  the  results  of  that 
great  act  —  the  authoritative  consecration,  in  a  moment 
of  time,  of  a  world  to  Christianity  forever  —  will  be  com- 
mensurate with  the  momentous  and  sublime  responsi- 
bility then,  there,  and  so  incurred,  and  binding  until 
"  the  elements  shall  melt  in  fervent  heat." 

San  Salvador,  though  it  has  never  belonged  to  us 
politically,  belongs  to  us  historically,  as  the  mother  of 
our  empire,  as  really  as  though  it  were  a  part  of  our 
actual  domain.  With  the  landing  of  Columbus  on  the 
flowery  soil  of  San  Salvador,  not  with  the  landing  of 
the  Pilgrims  on  the  hard,  cold  rock  of  Plymouth,  our 
imperial  history  begins.  The  empire  of  North  Amer- 
ica was  founded  on  loyalty  to  God,  to  the  Christian 
Church,  and  to  the  Christian  State,  not  on  rebellion 
against  God,  against  the  Christian  Church,  and  against 
the  Christian  State. 

As  our  domain  extends  landward  and  seaward,  we 
seem  to  grow  older  at  the  beginning  as  well  as  by 
the  progress  of  time.  For  many  years,  Jamestown  in 
Virginia  was  the  earliest  actual  settlement  of  the 
United  States.  When  Florida  was  joined  with  us, 
St.  Augustine  became  our  earliest  settlement  ;  and 
when  that  venerable  town  became  ours,  we  seemed 
rather  to  be  annexed  to   Florida,  than  Florida  to  us. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    EMPIRE    OF    NORTH    AMERICA.       I  I9 

So,  when  Mexico  shall  become  one  with  us,  we  shall 
add  to  our  age  at  the  beginning.  Something  more 
will  be  prefixed  to  our  age  when  the  West  Indies  shall 
come,  and  more  yet  when  the  Bahamas  shall  come, 
until  our  imperial  domain  shall  comprehend  every 
spot  of  land  in  North  America  which  was  pressed 
by  the  feet  of  the  Christian  founder  of  our  empire, 
—  Christian  as  it  is  by  right  and  obligation,  if  not  in 
fact,  —  Christopher  Columbus.  Of  no  man  that  ever 
lived  can  it  more  truly  be  said  that  "  he  built  wiser 
than  he  knew,"  than  of  Columbus,  all  the  gorgeous 
visions  of  whose  Southern  imagination  have  been  or 
will  be  completely  overshadowed  by  the  actual  facts 
of  history. 

Sebastian  Cabot  —  a  name  to  be  forever  honored 
as  the  symbol  of  heroic  enterprise  —  would  probably 
never  have  discovered  the  coast  of  Florida,  if  Columbus 
had  not  discovered  San  Salvador  ;  nor  would  he,  with 
John  Cabot,  have  found  Canada,  but  for  that  previous 
discovery;  yet  England  made  no  settlement  on  the 
coast  of  Florida  at  that  early  time,  and  Spain  did.  So 
that,  as  regards  both  previous  discovery  and  previous 
occupation,  we  derive  our  national  life  from  Christian 
Europe  through  Spain,  not  through  England. 

Some  may  wonder  at  my  making  so  much  account, 
over  and  over  again,  as  I  have  done,  of  the  succession 
of  political  authority.  With  my  convictions,  I  cannot 
do  otherwise.  I  do  not  believe  that  men  can  found 
a    state    any   more    than   they   can    found   a   church, 


120  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

though,  of  course,  we  may  speak  of  their  doing  either, 
by  a  relative,  not  absolute,  use  of  the  words.  When- 
ever I  have  spoken  or  whenever  I  may  speak  of  the 
founders  of  dominion,  I  must  be  understood  to  speak 
in  this  relative  manner.  Believing  that  the  Christian 
Church  and  the  Christian  state  are  both  derived  from 
God,  and  serve  Him  in  different  yet  harmonious  re- 
lations, I  cannot  help  regarding  the  succession  of 
Christian  authority  in  the  state  as  equally  binding 
with  the  succession  of  Christian  authority  in  the 
Church.  The  emperor,  king,  or  president,  in  any  of 
the  countries  comprising  Christendom,  who  cannot 
trace  his  political  lineage  through  all  the  changes  of 
civil  history  to  Constantine  the  Great,  who  was  the 
first  Roman  emperor  who  recognized  Christian  sover- 
eignty, would  be  as  equally  without  a  right  to  rule  as 
the  man  who  cannot  trace  his  authority  and  jurisdic- 
tion in  the  Church  of  God  to  the  commission  of  our 
ascending  Lord. 

What  was  once  Christendom,  in  fact,  is  always 
Christendom  by  right.  Hence  the  world  presents 
this  anomaly  to  the  observer,  that  all  the  rulers  of 
Christendom  can  trace  lawful  titles  to  Constantine, 
except  the  so-called  sovereign  who  rules  in  the  city 
of  Constantine,  and  those  who  regard  him  as  their 
political  or  religious  head.  This  ignominy  might  not 
be  long  expected  to  endure,  if  we  had  not  seen  within 
twenty  years  the  resources  of  Christian  civilization 
perverted  by  a  diabolical  and   successful  endeavor  to 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    EMPIRE    OF    NORTH    AMERICA.       121 

sustain  and  confirm  this  ignominy.  Some  Christian 
rulers  have  very  false  views  of  their  Christian  respon- 
sibilities. They  cannot,  however,  be  expected  to  have 
any  regard  for  the  throne  of  Constantine,  if  they  have 
none  even  for  the  Cross  of  their  redeeming  God. 

Note.  —  Gibbon  says  (Chapter  XVIII.),  that  "by  the  conver- 
sion of  Tiridates  [the  king  of  Armenia]  the  character  of  a  saint 
was  applied  to  that  of  a  hero,  the  Christian  faith  was  preached 
and  established  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  shores  of  the  Cas- 
pian, and  Armenia  was  attached  to  the  empire  by  the  double 
ties  of  policy  and  religion."  Alilnian,  however,  in  a  note  to  the 
same  page  in  which  the  statement  is  made,  says  :  "  Tiridates  had 
sustained  a  war  against  Maximin,  caused  by  the  hatred  of  the 
latter  against  Christianity.  Armenia  was  the  first  nation  which 
embraced  Christianity.  About  the  year  276  it  was  the  religion 
of  the  king,  the  nobles,  and  the  people  of  Armenia."  This  state- 
ment, if  really  true,  does  not  change  the  argument  since  the  time 
of  Constantine  ;  but  it  exalts,  as  concerns  the  recognition  of 
Chrlstianit)',  a  "barbarian"  king  of  Armenia  above  the  proud 
ruler  of  the  Roman  world.  It  makes  the  case  stronger  against 
Turkey.  Take  away  from  the  Ottoman  Empire  what  was  once 
Armenia  and  what  belonged  to  the  Roman  Empire,  and  not 
much  will  be  left  over  which  the  Sublime  Porte  can  have  any 
valid  sovereignty.  Gibbon  afterwards  admitted  in  his  "Vindi- 
cation," as  quoted  by  Milman  (note  in  Chapter  XX.),  "  that  the 
renowned  Tiridates,  the  hero  of  the  East,  may  dispute  with  Con- 
stantine the  honor  of  being  the  first  sovereign  who  embraced 
the  Christian  relitrion." 


CHAPTER    X. 

NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE,    NOT   THE   DELEGATE, 
OF    AUTHORITY. 

We  are  more  immediately  concerned  at  present  with 
the  so-called  English  colonies,  which,  as  the  nucleus  of 
an  empire,  were  one  colony  only.  It  is  right  to  speak 
of  different  colonies  of  an  empire,  when  they  are  in 
different  parts  of  the  world  ;  though  even  then  they 
form,  with  the  parent  state,  one  dominion.  The  Roman 
colonics,  though  scattered  about  the  world,  were  cer- 
tainly a  part  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The  present  colo- 
nies of  England,  on  every  continent,  are  a  part  of  the 
British  Empire  ;  but  contiguous  colonies,  obeying  the 
same  sovereignty,  however  they  may  be  marked  by 
earlier  or  later  grants,  or  by  geographical  boundaries, 
arc  essentially  one.  The  thirteen  Colonies  were  as 
much  an  integral  part  of  the  British  Empire  as  if  they 
had  been  thirteen  counties  in  England  ;  and  it  is  as  ab- 
surd to  speak  of  the  distinct  sovereignty  of  each  of  the 
"  old  thirteen,"  as  it  would  be  to  speak  of  the  distinct 
sovereignty  of  each  of  the  counties  of  England,  which 
are  all  under  the  same  crown.  The  people  who  obey  one 
ruler  are  one  people,  though  they  live  in  the  four  quar- 
ters of  the  world.     Though  an  empire  may  be  divided 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF   AUTHORITY.       1 23 

into  a  hundred  provinces  and  colonies,  all  the  provinces 
and  colonies  can  make  but  one  empire. 

When  the  "old  thirteen"  Colonies  separated  from  the 
British  Empire,  they  made  a  joint  step  forward  towards 
a  recognized  nationality.  They  had  been  one  dominion 
potentially  before.  Then  they  became  actually  one  by 
the  laws  of  civil  attraction.  They  were  not  thirteen 
dominions,  rendering  thirteen  allegiances,  when  they 
obeyed  the  British  crown,  but  one  dominion,  rendering 
one  and  the  same  allegiance.  As  they  were  not  thirteen 
dependencies,  but  one  dependency,  as  regarded  their 
loyalty  to  the  British  crown,  so  they  did  not  and  could 
not  become  thirteen  independencies,  but  one  indepen- 
dency after  the  Revolution.  They  were  not  thirteen 
sovereignties  before,  so  they  could  not  be  and  were  not 
thirteen  sovereignties  afterwards.  As  they  were  one 
colony  in  thirteen  divisions,  so  they  became  one  nation, 
in  thirteen  provinces,  not  by  their  own  will,  but  by  the 
fact  and  logic  of  history  and  of  human  society. 

The  American  Revolution  was  but  one  revolution, 
not  thirteen  revolutions,  with  one  Commander-in-Chief, 
with  one  Continental  Congress  ;  with  one  deputation  to 
France,  not  thirteen  deputations  ;  with  one  alliance  with 
France,  not  thirteen  alliances ;  with  one  struggle  from 
beginning  to  end,  and  with  one  final  victory,  with  one 
treaty  of  peace,  and,  consequently,  with  one  indepen- 
dence. I  deny  that  the  Colonies  became  each  indepen- 
dent ;  that  is,  each  by  itself.  They  became  all  inde- 
pendent ;  that  is,  as  all  making  one,  not  as  all  counted 


124  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

separately.  They  were  not  fighting  for,  and  they  did 
not  win,  —  they  did  not  try  to  win,  —  independence  of 
each  other ;  but  they  tried  to  win,  and  did  win,  a  joint 
independence  of  the  British  crown. 

To  prove  that  the  thirteen  Colonics  became  thirteen 
sovereign  States,  it  is  necessary  to  show  that  they  were 
recognized  in  the  Treaty  of  Peace  as  thirteen  sovereign 
powers.  That  was  not  the  case.  The  Treaty  of  Peace 
recognized  them  all  as  one.  The  world  at  large  recog- 
nized them  as  one.  Every  nation  that  recognized  their 
independence  recognized  that  independence  as  the 
independence  of  one  dominion,  and  not  of  thirteen 
dominions.  If  the  States  were  sovereign,  they  must 
have  been  so  at  the  close  of  the  war  ;  but  if  they  were 
sovereign,  the  Treaty  of  Peace  was  invalid,  for,  in  that 
case,  each  freed  Colony,  now  become  a  sovereign  State, 
not  only  had  a  right  to  have  a  separate  treaty  of  peace, 
but  there  was  no  real  peace  unless  each  State  had  its 
own  individual  treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain.  Not 
only  so,  but  if  each  dependent  Colony  had  become  a 
sovereign  State,  Great  Britain  would  have  had  a  right  to 
say  that,  unless  she  had  the  security  of  a  separate  treaty 
of  peace  with  each  one  of  the  States,  instead  of  one 
with  them  all  as  one,  she  miglit  be  attacked  on  land 
or  sea  at  any  time  ;  for,  on  the  ground  of  thirteen  sov- 
ereignties, each  might  repudiate  any  part  that  it  pleased 
of  a  joint  treaty,  which  did  not  recognize  and,  conse- 
quently, did  not  bind  each  sovereignty  ;  for  certainly 
there   can   be   no  plainer    international    principle    than 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF    AUTHORITY.       125 

this,  that  treaties  can  be  binding  only  between  sov- 
ereign powers.  All  the  facts  of  history  before,  during, 
and  after  the  Revolution  prove  that  there  was  but  one 
dependence,  one  people  struggling  for  independence, 
but  one  sovereignty  when  that  independence  was  gained. 
There  cannot  be  thirteen  independent  sovereignties 
making  one  overruling  sovereignty.  It  is  a  positive 
contradiction.  Nor  can  thirteen  sovereignties  and  one 
sovereignty  occupy  the  identical  space  at  the  same 
time,  any  more  than  thirteen  figures  can  fill  exactly  the 
space  of  fourteen  figures  at  the  same  time.  Nor  can  any 
government  be  recognized  as  a  government  anywhere 
on  earth,  or  by  anybody  on  earth,  if  it  assumes  to  act 
as  one  sovereignty  when  it  likes,  or  as  thirteen  or  fifty 
sovereignties  when  it  likes. 

As  our  country,  in  all  her  treaties,  has  been  recog- 
nized as  one  nation  and  one  sovereignty,  the  doctrine 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  States  must  fall  to  the  ground. 
No  country  in  the  world  has  ever  recognized  our  States 
as  sovereign.  Not  one  of  the  States  can  show  a  treaty 
of  any  kind  with  any  recognized  foreign  power ;  and 
no  such  power  would  ever  think  of  proposing  to  make 
any  such  treaty.  Sovereignty,  without  a  recognition 
of  sovereignty,  is  an  idle  dream,  when  it  concerns  po- 
litical powers  living  in  the  world  and  acting  with  other 
political  powers.  A  man  may  look  in  the  glass  and 
bow  to  himself  by  the  hour  at  a  time,  if  he  pleases,  but 
he  is  very  much  mistaken  if  he  calls  that  a  recognition 
by  a  friend.     So  a  State  may  look  in  the  glass  of  its 


126  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

own  self-conceit  for  seventy  years  if  it  pleases,  and  may 
bow,  and  smile,  and  look  very  amiable  ;  and  the  image 
may  bow,  and  smile,  and  look  very  amiable  in  return  ; 
but  after  all  the  mutual  admiration,  there  is  but  one  in- 
dividual, and  no  recognition  of  personality  beyond  itself. 

The  previous  divisions  of  our  country  were  of  no 
account  whatever,  as  regards  the  allegiance  rendered. 
When  our  country  threw  off  that  allegiance,  they  did  it 
as  a  united  people  ;  for  they  were  one  people  by  politi- 
cal affinity,  association,  and  similarity  of  laws,  and  one 
people  is  a  united  people  ;  and  if  a  political  community, 
they  are  one  political  community,  that  is,  a  nation. 
Yet,  if  others  joined  them,  whether  individuals  or  com- 
munities, they  became  a  part  of  that  one  dominion. 
What  we  call  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  was  of  course  a 
purchase,  as  a  transaction  ;  but  it  was  something  more 
than  that.  It  was  an  action  of  a  law  beyond  the  reach 
of  men  or  governments,  the  inexorable  law  of  centripetal 
force.  So  it  was  with  Texas  ;  so  it  was  with  Alaska ; 
so  it  may  be  with  other  territories  in  the  future. 

In  this  view,  then,  the  United  States  are  a  nation, 
whether  they  like  to  be  or  not.  In  answering  Yes  to 
the  question.  Are  the  United  States  a  nation  ?  I  have 
not  once  spoken  of  the  Constitution,  as  proving  the 
point.  I  have  purposely  avoided  doing  so  ;  for  to 
attempt  to  prove  that  we  are  a  nation  by  anything 
which  the  Constitution  says,  or  by  any  interpretation 
of  its  words,  by  their  own  light  or  by  that  of  history, 
would  be  false  logic.     It  would  be  simply  a  begging  of 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF    AUTHORITY.       12/ 

the  question.  I  .will  not  knowingly  use  a  false  argu- 
ment. If  we  were  not  a  nation  before  the  Constitution, 
we  were  not  a  nation  after  the  Constitution.  We  are  a 
nation,  not  because  of  the  Constitution,  but  antecedently 
to  the  Constitution,  independently  of  the  Constitution, 
and,  in  some  very  important  respects,  notwithstanding 
the  Constitution.  A  constitution  is  not  the  condition 
precedent.  A  nation  is  the  condition  precedent.  A 
constitution  cannot  make  a  natipn.  A  nation  makes 
a  constitution.  The  nation  is  the  larger  circle  which 
includes  the  constitution.  A  constitution  does  not 
make  authority  ;  it  recognizes  authority.  The  Creator 
must  precede  the  creature.  The  law-giver  must  precede 
the  law.  The  sun  must  precede  its  heat.  The  rose 
must  precede  its  fragrance.  The  living  soul  must  pre- 
cede the  living  word.  A  constitution  can  no  more 
make  a  nation  than  a  barometer  can  make  the  weather, 
or  than  an  astronomical  map  can  make  the  stars,  or 
than  the  Holy  Scriptures  can  make  the  Church  of  God. 
The  barometer  tells  the  weight  of  the  air ;  the  map 
denotes  the  stars  ;  the  Holy  Scriptures,  coming  from 
God,  record  the  divine  origin  of  the  Church  of  God. 
But  the  air  was  before  the  barometer  ;  the  stars  were 
before  the  map  ;  the  Church  of  God  was  before  the 
Scriptures  of  God. 

Whatever  nationality  or  sovereignty  our  country  has, 
she  has  by  an  historical  beginning  and  by  historical 
continuance,  and  not  in  consequence  of  any  constitution. 
The  American  Revolution  did  not  create  us  a  nation. 


128  THE   AMERICAN    STATE. 

It  simply  transferred  the  sovereignty  from  the  British 
crown  to  ourselves.  The  supremacy  of  England  so 
long  over  so  large  a  part  of  what  we  now  call  our 
country  was  a  very  important  incident  in  our  national 
history  ;  but  it  was  an  incident  only.  The  germ  of  our 
empire  had  been  planted  long  before  an  Englishman 
set  his  foot  upon  American  soil.  Our  patent  of  na- 
tionality was  signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  long  before 
the  American  Revolution.  At  the  Revolution  our 
country  fell  back  upon  her  independent  and  preceding 
nationality,  as  a  political  community  existing,  by  right 
of  previous  settlement,  on  the  American  continent, 
from  Christian  countries.  As  I  have  above  said,  our 
country  connects  herself  with  the  family  of  nations 
through  Spain,  in  the  first  instance.  She  never,  as  a 
country,  owed  or  paid  political  allegiance  to  Spain  ; 
there  was  no  reason  why  she  should.  But  Spain,  not 
England,  was  the  mother  of  the  North  American  empire. 
Our  country,  in  renouncing  allegiance  to  the  British 
crown,  and  throwing  herself  into  the  stronghold  of  her 
previous  nationality,  and  reconnecting  herself  with  the 
Christian  nations,  through  her  earlier  chain  of  relation, 
was  nobly  aided  by  France,  —  an  instance  of  poetical 
justice  as  severe  and  beautiful  as  anything  in  the  Grecian 
drama ;  for  France  was  a  cognate  nation  with  Spain, 
from  whom  American  nationality  was  derived.  Thank 
God,  our  country  was  founded  on  the  corner-stone  of 
true,  organic  authority,  not  upon  a  successful,  however 
just,  insurrection. 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF    AUTHORITY.       1 29 

I  admit  the  sacred  right  of  revolution,  after  all  honor- 
able ways  of  peace  have  been  tried  in  vain  to  secure  a 
redress  of  undoubted  grievances.  I  admit  that  no 
revolution  in  history  was  more  just  than  our  own  ; 
and,  unquestionably,  all  honorable  ways  of  peace  had 
been  tried  over  and  over  again  to  secure  for  the  Ameri- 
can people  the  same  rights  which  were  freely  allowed 
to  the  people  of  England,  The  colonists  were,  for  the 
most  part,  of  the  same  race  as  those  who  inhabited 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ;  and  they  had  the  same 
rights. 

A  distinction  between  colonists  and  citizens  at  home 
can  be  justly  made  only  when  a  colony  is  established 
among  barbarians,  who  must  be  educated  to  citizenship, 
or  among  races  like  those  of  India,  to  a  degree  civilized, 
yet  of  entirely  different  traditions  and  politics,  which 
require  to  be  gradually  displaced.  There  was  no  reason 
why  the  American  people,  while  they  rendered  allegiance 
to  the  British  crown,  should  not  have  been  treated 
just  as  the  people  of  England  were.  I  do  not  say  as 
the  people  of  Ireland  were  treated ;  for  that  was  even 
worse  than  the  way  in  which  the  American  people  were 
treated.  It  has  been  the  ingrained  error  of  the  British 
government  for  hundreds  of  years  to  regard  the  people 
of  England  as  alone  entitled  to  civil  rights,  and  to  deny 
to  all  others  —  the  people  of  Scotland,  the  people  of 
Ireland,  and  of  English  colonies  —  an  equality  of  po- 
sition, and  of  the  rights  of  liberty,  industry,  and  enter- 
prise with  the  people  of  England  itself  Had  the  British 
6*  I 


130  THE   AMERICAN    STATE. 

government  acted  on  the  plain,  comprehensive,  and 
persistent  belief  that  no  part  of  the  British  Empire 
could  be  injured  without  injuring  the  whole,  and  that 
the  more  a  free  and  generous  rivalry  in  all  modes  of 
honorable  enterprise  was  encouraged  in  all  parts  of  the 
empire,  the  greater,  richer,  stronger,  and  more  loyal  all 
parts  of  the  empire  would  be,  the  history  of  a  large  part 
of  the  world  would  have  been  very  different  from  what  it 
has  been.  England  might,  perhaps,  have  won  and  for 
ages  have  worn  the  crown  of  universal  empire,  had  she 
been  far-sighted  and  broad-sighted  enough  to  discard, 
where  it  was  possible,  the  Pagan  distinction  between 
citizens  and  colonists,  and  to  permit  all  the  subjects  of 
her  dominion  to  contribute  to  the  common  prosperity, 
by  seeking  individual  prosperity  in  honorable  and  unre- 
stricted ways.  But  she  has  preferred  to  treat  all  the 
rest  of  her  empire  as  merely  tributary  to  the  people  of 
England  alone.  It  is  too  late  for  her  to  recover  what 
she  has  lost ;  it  is  too  late  for  her  to  keep  for  a  long  time 
her  North  American  possessions  ;  but  it  is  not  too  late  to 
keep  her  European  dominion,  and  to  keep  and  to  extend 
her  East  Indian  dominion,  by  a  wiser  and  nobler  policy, 
unless  she  wishes  to  contemplate  the  domain  on  which 
the  sun  never  sets  reduced  to  the  space  between  Land's 
End  and  the  Tweed. 

But,  though  I  claim  and  honor  the  justice  of  the 
American  Revolution,  and  am  proud  of  it  as  an  Amer- 
ican citizen,  I  admit  having  a  kind  of  horror  of  an 
empire  being  founded    by  a  revolution,   however  just 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF    AUTHORITY.       1^1 

and  glorious.  I  claim  that  our  own  was  not  so  estab- 
lished ;  that  the  Revolution  was  an  important  era  in 
our  national  progress,  but  not  our  national  beginning. 

There  is  one  very  important  consideration  connected 
with  our  Revolution,  which  is,  that  there  was  no  rea- 
son for  any  American  having  any  special  reluctance 
to  renounce  allegiance  to  the  British  crown,  since, 
through  the  American  Revolution,  for  a  long  time 
before  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  George  the 
Third  was  not  the  lawful  king  of  England.  During 
the  whole  period  of  our  Revolution,  the  lawful  king 
of  England,  Charles  the  Third,  was  an  exile  from  his 
throne  ;  and  George  the  Third  was  simply  one  of  the 
line  of  usurpers,  or,  at  best,  but  a  provisional  monarch. 

The  people  of  the  British  Empire  could  recognize 
George  the  Third  as  the  king  of  England,  if  they 
chose  to  do  so,  though  they  were  under  no  obliga- 
tion to  do  so.  His  acts  as  the  king  of  England, 
though  he  never  was  the  lawful  king  of  England,  ex- 
cept for  the  last  thirteen  years  of  his  reign,  were  bind- 
ing as  regarded  foreign  countries,  for  these  were  bound 
to  recognize  as  the  representative  of  the  sovereignty 
of  the  British  Empire  the  individual  whose  reign  was 
submitted  to,  if  not  recognized  as  right  by,  the  people 
of  the  nation.  Even  the  acts  of  Oliver  Cromwell, 
while  he  was  the  recognized  head  of  the  British  Em- 
pire, had  to  be  regarded,  when  they  referred  to  inter- 
national affairs,  as  the  authorized  acts  of  the  British 
Empire.     But  the  authority  of  George  the  Third,  the 


132  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

provisional  king  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  de- 
pended, during  the  greater  part  of  his  long  reign,  upon 
the  sufferance  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land and  the  people  of  the  British  colonies,  and  not 
upon  any  right.  The  stigma  of  disloyalty  or  disobe- 
dience to  a  Christian  king,  reigning  by  right  and 
true  to  his  trust,  does  not  rest  upon  America.  The 
American  Revolution  sprang  out  of  resistance  to  the 
so-called  king  of  England,  who  was  not  the  lawful 
king  at  that  time,  and  who  became  the  lawful  king 
twenty-five  years  after  the  Independence  of  the  United 
States  of  America  was  acknowledged  by  the  provis- 
ional yet  binding  government  of  Great  Britain.  I 
readily  admit  that  the  present  dynasty  of  the  British 
Empire  is  in  lawful  possession  of  the  throne,  but  it 
has  only  been  so  since  the  year  1807,  the  year  when 
died  his  Majesty,  Henry  the  Ninth,  King  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  etc.,  etc., 
etc..  Cardinal  York. 

In  what  I  have  just  said,  I  have  meant  to  insist 
upon  the  point  that,  if  a  people  hold  to  hereditary 
descent  as  the  foundation  of  the  royal  authority  which 
they  recognize,  they  must  accept  the  principle  in  good 
faith.  Circumstances  may  indeed  arise  when  the  peo- 
ple of  any  country  under  hereditary  rule  have  a  per- 
fect right,  according  to  the  laws  of  God  and  of  man, 
to  dismiss  the  reigning  dynasty  from  power,  and  to 
choose  as  their  king  any  individual  from  their  own 
land   or  from  any  other,  disregarding  entirely  all  the 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE   OF    AUTHORITY.       1 33 

laws  of  hereditary  descent,  which  should  either  be  as 
strictly  as  possible  adhered  to,  or  openly  and  avowedly 
rejected  in  the  choice  of  a  king,  provided  that,  while 
choosing  a  king,  they  acknowledge  that  his  right  to 
rule  comes  from  God  and  not  from  man  ;  and  even  if 
requiring  hereditary  descent,  according  to  the  rules  of 
dynasties,  they  are  not  obliged  to  spend  time  in  clear- 
ing titles  greatly  involved ;  and  when  a  dynasty  has 
decayed,  they  are  not  required  to  hunt  up  some  ob- 
scure person,  who  may  have,  or  who  may  not  have,  a 
valid  claim  of  descent ;  but  in  the  case  of  the  child  and 
grandchildren  of  James  the  Second,  who  was  not  un- 
faithful to  his  trust,  and  who  was  wrongfully  dethroned, 
there  was  no  such  emergency.  James  the  Third  was 
the  lawful  king  of  England,  and  the  son  of  a  lawful 
king.  Charles  the  Third  was  the  lawful  king  of  Eng- 
land, and  the  son  of  a  lawful  king.  Henry  the  Ninth 
was  the  lawful  king  of  England,  the  son  of  a  lawful 
king,  and  the  brother  of  a  lawful  king.  With  Henry 
the  Ninth  the  house  of  Stuart  died,  as  far  as  any  clear 
right  can  be  owned  in  reference  to  hereditary  descent. 
There  may  be  claimants  of  the  house  of  Stuart  per- 
haps true,  and  perhaps  as  shameless  and  treacherous 
as  the  infamous  adventurer  who  for  several  years  set 
all  England  in  a  flurry  by  claiming  to  be  the  heir  of 
the  Tichborne  estates  ;  but  it  is  too  late  now  to  make 
or  to  decide  any  question  of  a  Stuart  descent. 

The  house  of  Brunswick  is  now  the  lawful  dynasty 
of  Great  Britain,  and  will  remain  so  until  the  people 


134  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

shall  choose  to  change  it,  in  order  to  restore  those  con- 
ditions under  which  •  England  was  illustrious  for  cen- 
turies. In  that  case,  the  house  of  Brunswick  can  find 
no  fault  ;  for  it  reigned  over  England  ninety-three  years 
without  any  right  to  reign,  and  for  twenty-five  years 
before  its  accession  the  lawful  king  of  England  was  an 
exile  from  his  throne  ;  so  that  if  at  any  time  the  people 
of  the  British  Empire  shall  choose  to  change  the  dynasty 
of  their  sovereigns,  they  cannot  be  accused  of  injustice 
towards  families  who  have  occupied  their  throne,  with- 
out a  just  title,  for  one  hundred  and  eighteen  years. 

I  do  not  claim  and  do  not  believe  that  the  kings  of 
the  house  of  Stuart  were  of  a  very  high  and  illustrious 
order  of  monarchs  ;  but  the  reduction  of  the  royal  au- 
thority to  a  mere  shadow  has  proved  a  thousand-fold 
greater  calamity  to  England  than  was  or  could  be  the 
reign  of  the  worst  of  the  Stuart  kings.  The  British 
Empire  will  not  again  occupy  its  proper  sphere  of  in- 
fluence in  the  world  until  the  royal  authority  shall  be 
restored  to  something  like  its  ancient  grandeur  and 
splendor,  in  the  hands  of  sovereigns  able  and  willing  to 
wield  with  power  and  justice  the  sceptre  of  Alfred. 

The  British  Empire,  by  substituting  the  house  of 
Brunswick  for  the  house  of  Stuart,  certainly  gained  one 
thing,  —  a  vast  and  frightful  increase  of  the  national 
debt,  —  besides  showing  to  the  world  the  extraordinary 
anomaly  of  George  the  Third,  a  king  wearing  the  crown 
of  England  for  forty-three  years  without  a  right  to  wear 
it,  according  to  the  theory  of  the  British   people   for 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF    AUTHORITY.       1 35 

centuries,  making  war  against  the  Emperor  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  as  an  unlawful  ruler  of  France.  The  title 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  and  that  of  his  family  to  the 
French  throne  was  a  great  deal  better  than  the  title 
of  George  the  Third  to  the  British  throne  for  forty-three 
years,  and  as  good  as  his  title  for  the  remaining  seven- 
teen years  of  his  reign.  The  French  people,  in  recog- 
nizing the  head  of  the  Napoleonic  dynasty,  did  not 
pretend  to  follow,  on  the  main  road  or  on  any  by-road, 
the  line  of  hereditary  descent.  They  deviated  avowed- 
ly, and  made  a  new  man,  unconnected  with  any  royal 
family,  their  Emperor,  as  they  had  a  right  to  do,  as 
any  nation,  in  great  civil  emergencies,  has  a  right  to  do. 
The  throne  was  vacant,  in  consequence  of  civil  convul- 
sions, when  the  French  people  assented  to  its  being 
occupied  by  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  They  had  not  de- 
throned their  lawful  king,  as  England  had  done,  on 
purpose  to  put  an  adventurer  and  invader  in  his  place. 
A  terrible  faction,  in  its  hour  of  malignant  ascendency, 
had  murdered  the  king  of  France,  but  the  people  of 
France  were  powerless  to  prevent  that  crime.  In  as- 
senting to  the  reign  of  Napoleon,  they  did  the  best  they 
could  ;  and  as  things  were,  what  they  did  was  best. 

Now,  indeed,  the  French  people  have  a  clear  right, 
and  it  would  be  good  sense  and  wisdom  to  restore  the 
heir  of  the  house  of  Bourbon,  with  the  lilies  of  St.  Louis 
and  the  white-cross  flag  ;  for  that  restoration,  even  if 
followed  by  the  branch  of  Orleans,  would  do  much  to 
conciliate  and  reconcile  all  parties  in  France  to  the 


136  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

eventual  restoration  of  the  Napoleonic  dynasty,  which, 
with  all  its  faults,  and  they  were  many  and  great,  has 
rendered  too  great,  too  illustrious  and  enduring  services 
to  France,  to  be  dethroned  forever  by  a  sincere  and 
patriotic,  if  unfortunate,  effort  to  sustain  the  national 
honor,  and,  as  it  would  have  proved,  the  national  life. 
France  has  suffered  terribly  by  resisting  the  vindictive 
arrogance  of  Prussia,  but  she  would  have  suffered  more 
terribly  if  she  had  not  resisted.  Had  she  permitted  the 
diplomatic  and  dynastic  conquest  of  Spain  by  Prussia, 
that  event  would  have  been  followed,  in  due  time,  by 
the  complete  annihilation  of  France  as  a  ruling  power. 

During  our  war  to  defend  the  national  life,  much 
exasperation  was  created,  entirely  without  excuse,  by 
representing  it  as  a  Puritan  war.  The  unjust  reproach 
of  our  enemies  was  most  singularly  accepted  and  ap- 
proved by  some  loyal  men.  I  remember  that  even  one 
of  our  generals,  during  a  furlough  from  active  duty  in 
the  field,  boasted  in  a  public  speech  of  his  descent  from 
a  famous  Puritan  elder,  and  represented  the  war  as  a 
continuation  of  the  Puritan  conflict.  Nothing  more 
false,  more  absurd,  more  foolish,  or  more  liable  to  do 
irreparable  mischief,  could  have  been  said.  What  were 
the  Puritans  ?  When  they  first  arose,  they  were  loyal 
citizens  with  strict  views  of  private  and  public  duty, 
and  of  intentions  honorable  and  commendable.  If 
some  abuses  had  been  corrected,  the  Puritans  might 
not  have  been  driven  to  try  to  destroy  all  that  is 
beautiful,  inspiring,   and   glorious   in    English   history 


NATIONAL   UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF   AUTHORITY.       1 3/ 

and  civilization.  While  they  remained  loyal  in  their 
relations  to  God  and  man,  they  were,  notwithstanding 
some  widely  mistaken  views,  patriotic  and  useful  men. 
Of  such  a  class  were  those  who  came  to  America.  But 
when  the  Puritans  are  named,  the  idea  is  presented 
to  the  mind  as  they  afterwards  became,  when,  attain- 
ing power,  they  tried  to  destroy  nearly  all  that  was 
worth  saving  in  England,  and  to  develop  all  that 
deserved  destruction ;  when,  no  longer  loyal  to  any- 
thing, their  tyrannical  leaders  became  the  abject  slaves 
of  their  own  self-will,  and  traitors  to  their  God,  their 
church,  their  country,  and  their  king.  Yet  America 
was  represented  as  trying  to  put  down  a  domestic  in- 
surrection on  the  very  princijDle  of  a  fourfold  rebellion. 
It  was  not  true.  The  follies  of  the  Stuarts,  great  as 
they  were,  faded  away  before  the  crimes  of  those, 
including  Elizabeth,  who  cut  off  their  heads. 

Our  empire  was  founded  before  the  Puritans  were 
heard  of.  Even  the  first  emigrants  from  England 
were  not  Puritans.  There  is  nothing  more  wild  or 
preposterous  in  all  history  than  to  represent  the  Puri- 
tans as  the  founders  of  the  Empire  of  the  West,  even 
if  we  go  no  further  back  than  English  settlements. 
With  all  my  love  for  Massachusetts,  I  cannot  see  how 
that  claim  can  be  an  historical  honor  which  is  an 
historical  falsehood.  We  may  not  like  the  politics  of 
Virginia,  but  we  cannot  conveniently  rub  out  the  his- 
tory of  the  "  Old  Dominion "  or  deny  its  claim  to 
that  laurel  of  praise.     Virginia,  indeed,  turned  herself 


138  THE   AMERICAN   STATE, 

against  herself,  and  fought  against  her  own  noble 
record  ;  but  that  fact,  however  deplorable,  cannot 
change  the  historical  Jamestown  into  the  original  wil- 
derness, or  blot  out  the  hallowed  memories  of  Mount 
Vernon. 

Our  country  was  fighting  to  save  herself  from  de- 
struction, without  reference  to  any  conflicts  of  party 
anywhere  or  at  any  time  before.  If  the  sons  of  the 
Puritans  chose  to  help,  as  thousands  of  them  did, 
bravely  and  nobly,  it  was  well.  If  sons  of  those  who 
fought  with  all  their  might  against  the  Puritans  chose 
to  help,  and  thousands  of  them  did,  bravely  and  nobly, 
it  was  well.  But  no  man  in  civil  or  military  service, 
while  the  war  was  in  progress,  had  any  right  to  rep- 
resent the  soldiers  of  his  country,  whom  military  obedi- 
ence would  compel  to  bear  the  insult  in  silence,  as 
fighting  for  the  policy  which  the  speaker  approved  in 
the  conflicts  of  two  centuries  ago.  Under  his  own 
command,  no  doubt,  there  were  whole  regiments  of 
men,  and  those  as  brave  as  the  bravest,  into  whose 
very  souls  had  been  burned  well-deserved  hatred  for 
the  Puritan  ascendency  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
But,  since  a  general  of  the  national  army,  in  actual 
service,  chose  to  pervert  history  and  the  cause  of  his 
own  struggling  country,  it  is  right,  now  that  the  war 
is  over,  to  say  that  our  country  was  not  fighting  for 
Puritanism  in  the  state  or  in  the  church,  or  anything 
of  the  kind.  She  was  fighting  to  save  her  life  ;  and, 
so  far  from  fighting  on  the  Puritan  ground  against  the 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF    AUTHORITY.       1 39 

disloyal  States,  she  was  contending  for  the  lawful  and 
the  recognized  national  authority ;  and  the  Puritans, 
during  their  malignant  ascendency  in  England,  were 
notoriously  fighting,  as  they  knew,  and  as  all  the  world 
knew,  against  the  lawful  and  recognized  national  au- 
thority, until  they  succeeded  in  murdering  their  king 
and  putting  their  bloody  leader  in  his  place.  Our  coun- 
try was  not  trying  with  all  her  might  to  put  down  dis- 
loyalty or  the  principles  of  disloyalty.  It  would  be  far 
more  historically  just  to  say  that  she  was  fighting 
against  Puritanism,  not  for  it. 

The  Puritan  ascendency  in  England  I  regard  as  a 
great  calamity  while  it  endured,  and  a  greater  calamity 
in  its  consequences.  Nevertheless,  there  were,  as  I 
have  intimated,  some  sterling  qualities  in  the  earlier 
Puritans  which  will  forever  challenge  and  win  admi- 
ration. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  of  the 
Puritans  protested  and  resisted  when  the  mask  of  the 
leaders  was  thrown  off,  and  the  features,  more  hideous 
than  the  mask,  of  fierce  and  undisguised  ambition 
glared  in  their  faces  ;  as  many  who  had  upheld  the 
Parliament  when  the  rights  of  Englishmen  were  in 
doubt  bravely  rushed  to  the  side  of  the  king  when 
the  rights  of  organic  authority  were  invaded. 

In  the  same  way,  many  affirmed  that  we  were  fight- 
ing for  republicanism,  when  republicanism  as  republi- 
canism had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  question. 
The  country  was  fighting  to  save  her  life.  She  hap- 
pened to  be  a  republic,  and  so,  indeed,  she  was  fighting 


140  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

for  a  republic  ;  but  simply  as  a  matter  of  fact,  not  as  a 
principle,  for  that  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  war,  one 
way  or  another.  It  is  a  poor  compliment  to  pay  to 
our  hosts  of  brave  and  loyal  soldiers,  to  say  that  they 
were  fighting  for  a  merely  incidental  form  of  govern- 
ment, when  they  were  fighting  and  dying  for  their 
country  and  their  country  alone,  however  governed, 
yet  their  country  worth  living  for,  worth  dying  for. 
Can  any  one  believe  that  our  army  and  navy  would  not 
have  fought  with  equal  bravery  and  success  if  Abraham 
Lincoln,  the  representative  of  the  national  sovereignty, 
had  descended  in  direct  succession  from  kings  who 
had  reigned  before  William  the  Conqueror,  instead  of 
being  taken  from  his  simple  prairie  home  to  preside 
over  the  Empire  of  the  West  ?  Was  not  the  personal 
enthusiasm  for  Abraham  Lincoln  among  our  soldiers, 
and  in  all  hearts  and  wills  that  were  true  to  their 
country,  very  nearly  akin  to  loyalty  ?  When  a  man  is 
drowning,  his  first  thought  and  first  effort  will  be  to 
save  his  life.  If  he  knows  how  to  swim,  he  will  do  the 
best  he  knows  without  intending  to  favor  one  theory 
of  swimming  over  any  other  theory  of  swimming,  but 
simply  to  save  himself  or  get  saved,  if  he  can.  When 
a  nation  is  in  danger  of  drowning,  she  will  save  her  life 
or  get  saved,  if  she  can  ;  she  will  thankfully  accept  the 
service  of  strong  arms  for  her  rescue,  without  question- 
ing her  deliverers,  at  such  a  critical  moment,  whether 
they  have  dived  into  the  salt  water  on  royal  or  republi- 
can principles.     So  when  men  fight  for  their  country, 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF    AUTHORITY.       I4I 

they  fight  for  their  country,  and  with  equal  bravery, 
self-devotion,  and  success,  as  all  history  shows,  whether 
the  man  who  represents  their  country  and  whose  orders 
they  obey  wears  a  jewelled  crown,  a  helmet,  or  a  hat, 
a  robe  of  royal  purple,  a  tunic,  or  a  coat.  If,  on  either 
side,  the  bravery,  self-devotion,  and  success  are  greater, 
it  is  where  the  sentiment  of  patriotism  is  made  more 
real  and  intense  by  the  sentiment  of  loyalty. 

Our  nationality  is  imperfect,  like  that  of  Switzerland, 
—  a  confession  rather  humiliating  to  make,  though  en- 
tirely just,  that  a  nation  which  is  the  first  in  the  New 
World,  and  claims  to  be  one  of  the  ruling  powers  on 
earth,  has,  indeed,  a  true  nationality  in  theory,  but 
one  so  hampered  and  hamstrung  in  practice,  that,  as 
regards  its  form  of  government,  it  has  to  take  its  place 
by  the  side  of  one  of  the  smallest  nationalities  in  the 
world. 

The  world  has  never  seen  nobler  instances  of  manly 
courage  than  Switzerland  can  show  in  her  past,  and 
nothing  in  that  past  is  nobler  than  the  way  in  which 
one  of  her  Catholic  bishops  now  shows  a  spirit  worthy 
of  the  early  days  of  martyrdom,  in  upholding  the  rights 
and  immunities  of  his  high  office  in  the  face  of  threats, 
insults,  and  indignities,  like  those  which  his  Divine  Mas- 
ter bore  in  the  hall  of  Pilate.  There  are  as  noble,  gener- 
ous, brave,  and  Christian  people  in  Switzerland  as  any- 
where else  on  earth  ;  but,  for  a  long  time,  they  have 
been  overborne  and  trampled  down  by  the  wild  fury 
of  the  false  principle  that  the  will  of  a  majority  sane- 


142  THE   AMERICAN    STATE. 

tifies  any  wrong  and  any  crime.  These  noble  peo- 
ple have  not  been  able  to  rescue  their  country  from 
degrading  the  very  name  of  republicanism,  or  from 
proving  that  the  Very  smallest  of  souls  may  live  among 
the  grandest  of  mountains,  and  that  men,  when  led 
astray  by  the  spirit  of  injustice,  are  seen  in  ignominious 
contrast  with  the  majesty  of  nature.  Stories,  poems, 
and  sentimental  histories  represent  the  people  of  Swit- 
zerland all  and  always  as  the  generous  and  glorious  up- 
holders of  human  liberty.  Nonsense  !  How  can  men 
be  the  upholders  of  honorable  liberty  for  its  own  sake, 
when  they  will  uphold  the  worst  tyranny  on  earth  for 
hard  ringing  money  .''  God  grant  that  the  manly  and 
magnanimous  portion  of  the  people  of  Switzerland  may 
yet  win  back  the  ancient  honor  of  their  glorious  land ; 
and  may  they  do  it  soon  !  Otherwise  the  world  will  see 
without  grief  her  territory  become  a  part  of  France,  of 
Austria,  or  of  both.  There  need  be  no  fighting  to 
secure  that  result.  Where  soldiers  can  be  bought,  a 
country  can  be  sold.  Yet  if  Switzerland  desires  to  keep 
her  nationality,  let  her  get,  as  soon  as  she  can,  a  nation- 
ality that  is  worth  kcepijig,  and  administer  its  govern- 
ment with  honor  and  justice.  Let  her  not  go  limping 
through  the  world  in  an  ungainly  and  awkward  federal 
union.  Let  Switzerland  become  one  state,  with  one 
head  and  one  responsible  ministry.  Small  as  she  is, 
she  may  become  great  in  wisdom  and  in  right.  Until 
then,  the  Federal  Union  of  America,  spread  over  half 
a  continent,  will  repose  with  her  forty  millions  of  Fed- 


NATIONAL    UNITY    THE    SOURCE    OF    AUTHORITY,       1 43 

eralists  under  the  protecting  shadow  of  her  European 
exemplar  and  model.  Switzerland  has,  at  least,  a  name 
which  denotes  nationality.  In  this  respect  she  is  more 
fortunate  than  her  great  American  sister,  who  clings 
with  tenacity  like  hers  to  the  worn-out  heresy  of 
federalism. 


CHAPTER    XI. 


NATIONAL    SOVEREIGNTY. 


Imperfect  as  our  nationality  is,  it  has  been  recog- 
nized throughout  the  world  for  many  years.  The  Fed- 
eral Union  grew  out  of  the  Confederacy.  The  Confed- 
eracy grew  out  of  the  independence  of  the  Colonies,  as 
we  speak,  though,  after  independence,  they  were  exactly 
what  they  were  before,  an  undeveloped  nation  ;  yet 
whatever  inherent  sovereignty  they  had,  was  the  sov- 
ereignty, not  of  each,  but  of  all ;  and,  in  like  manner, 
the  sovereignty  of  the  States  is  the  sovereignty,  not  of 
each,  but  of  all  ;  not  a  combination  of  sovereignties,  but 
a  single  sovereignty,  visibly  the  result  of  the  combina- 
tion, though  potentially  existing  before.  No  one  State 
has  an  inherent  right  to  claim  sovereignty  on  the 
ground  that  all  the  States  are  sovereign,  any  more  than 
a  man  can  claim  to  be  a  sovereign  because  he  is  one  of 
the  people,  and  all  the  people  are  sovereign.  Perhaps 
so;  all  the  people,  not  each  one  of  all  the  people,  —  a 
vast  difference.  Whenever  it  is  proper  to  use  the 
expression  "the  sovereignty  of  the  people,"  it  must  be 
understood  to  mean  what  only  it  can  mean,  the  sov- 
ereignty   of  all   the   people,  as    of  one  body,   not  an 


NATIONAL    SOVEREIGNTY.  145 

aggregation  of  individual  sovereignties.  So,  of  the 
so-called  sovereignty  of  the  States,  which  is  very  often 
referred  to,  as  though  each  State  had,  at  some  time,  an 
entire  and  independent  sovereignty,  of  which  it  gave 
lip  a  share  when  the  Constitution  was  formed.  No 
State  of  the  American  empire  ever  had  any  such  sov- 
ereignty ;  so  it  could  not  give  what  it  never  had,  nor 
could  a  State  reserve  what  it  never  owned,  an  inherent 
and  original  sovereignty.  The  States  never  had  any 
sovereignty  except  as  parts  of  a  whole  ;  and,  in  that 
case,  the  sovereignty  was  the  undivided  and  indivisible 
sovereignty  of  all  together,  not  of  each  or  of  any  sepa- 
rately. 

Authority  that  does  not  grow  or  is  not  transmitted 
is  no  authority.  Authority  cannot  be  made  at  will,  for 
the  essential  prerogative  of  authority  is  to  make.  No 
number  of  men,  simply  as  a  number  of  men,  can  make 
a  civil  government  which  shall  be  binding  upon  any 
one.  References  are  often  made  to  the  political  con- 
stitution which  was  said  to  be  made  in  the  cabin  of 
the  "  Mayflower."  Nothing  could  be  there  made  ex- 
cept a  few  by-laws  for  the  guidance  of  individuals  in 
their  social  relations  ;  nothing  in  the  way  of  an  organic 
law  of  state  which  would  be  to  any  degree  more  bind- 
ing than  the  rules  of  a  debating  society  or  of  any 
private  literary  or  political  club.  The  Pilgrims  of  the 
"  Mayflower  "  were  subjects  of  the  British  crown,  and 
had  no  more  right  to  make  a  constitution  of  govern- 
ment which  could  be  binding  upon  anybody,  even  upon 
7  J 


146  THE    AMERICAN    STATE, 

themselves,  as  an  authoritative  law,  than  they  had  to 
regulate  the  movements  of  the  planets.  The  royal 
charters  were  the  only  civil  constitutions  which  were 
binding  in  America  until  the  sword  of  a  just  Revolu- 
tion sundered  the  bond  of  allegiance,  and  the  Colonies 
fell  back  upon  their  organic  rights  as  being  together 
one  civil  community,  deriving,  not  creating  those  or- 
ganic rights. 

Nations  alone  can  make  constitutions,  and  authorized 
agents  of  nations  can  alone  make  laws,  which  even 
then  are  not  laws  until  they  have  received  the  approval 
of  him,  by  whatever  name  he  may  be  called,  who  repre- 
sents the  sovereign  power  of  the  state.  The  state,  like 
the  Church,  comes  from  God  ;  and  the  man  who  has  no 
credentials  has  no  right  to  act  for  either.  Now  and 
then,  indeed,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  there  have 
been  men  evidently  born  with  a  right  to  rule,  the  gift 
of  God  himself,  whose  plain  duty  it  has  been  to  make 
organic  and  permanent  changes  in  civil  government ; 
and  who,  of  course,  were  not  required  to  wait  for  the 
recognition  of  their  right  by  the  actual  civil  govern- 
ment at  the  time,  which  it  was  alike  their  aim  and 
their  obligation  to  change  or  supplant.  But  these 
instances  arc  so  rare  that  they  cannot  be  taken  for 
the  ordinary  rule  of  civil  affairs  ;  and  even  in  their 
case  it  is  their  obedience  to  God  which  makes  them 
seem  disobedient  to  man.  As  Channing  said  of  Mil- 
ton, they  obey  higher  laws  than  they  transgress.  Even 
they  cannot  create.     They  can  bul  use. 


NATIONAL   SOVEREIGNTY.  I47 

The  state,  like  the  Church,  is  founded  on  the  law  of 
God  applied  to  the  affairs  of  men,  in  a  sphere  different 
3^ct  harmonious.  Were  it  possible  for  any  government 
to  exist  in  Christendom  that  had  not  a  right  to  rule 
derived  from  Christendom,  it  would  have  no  right  to 
rule.  That  is  the  present  condition  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire.  She  exists,  and  has  existed  for  centuries,  but 
without  a  right,  for  she  has  derived  no  authority  to  rule 
from  Christendom,  and  rules  in  defiance  of  Christendom. 
Not  even  the  consent  of  all  the  Christian  powers  could 
give  her  a  clear  title  to  sovereignty  over  Christian  ter- 
ritory. Our  national  authority  has  come  to  us  in  an 
unbroken  line  from  recognized  governments,  whether 
we  trace  it  through  England  or  through  Spain.  A 
living  nation  may  be  the  mother  of  a  living  nation, 
and  from  the  ashes  of  dead  empires  new  dominions 
may  spring.  Whether  our  organization  is  one  per- 
fectly national  or  not  is  a  subordinate  question  in  de- 
ciding our  title.  The  main  point  here  is,  Are  the 
United  States  in  any  way,  in  any  sense,  a  nation  .'' 

Our  national  tree  came  from  Christian  Europe.  Its 
roots  were  planted  in  a  soil  which  belongs,  first  of  all 
things,  to  God.  That  tree,  as  it  grew,  put  forth  many 
branches  ;  but  they  all  came  from  the  same  root,  and 
however  independent  they  might  seem  to  be  or  might 
claim  to  be,  they  were  not  independent,  for  they  de- 
rived all  their  life  and  vigor  from  one  root.  Many 
grafts  have  been  made  upon  that  tree,  but,  as  they 
were   grafts  from  living  trees,  they   soon  partook   of 


148  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

the  living  force  of  the  tree  on  which  they  were  grafted. 
We  sometimes  hear  it  said,  that  such  and  such  domains 
have  been  annexed  to  our  country.  The  expression  is 
strictly  incorrect,  though  it  may  be  used  in  a  general 
way,  when  one  is  not  intending  to  be  exact.  Annexa- 
tion means  to  add  something,  just  as  one  would  nail  a 
board  to  a  building.  Our  country  has  never  had,  and 
God  forbid  that  she  should  have,  any  such  annexations. 
All  the  domains  which  have  been  joined  to  our  original 
national  domain  have  been,  not  dead  boards  nailed  to  a 
dead  building,  but  living  branches  grafted  into  a  living 
tree. 

The  root  of  our  tree  of  civil  sovereignty  was  planted, 
and  it  has  grown,  by  the  good  providence  of  God.  It 
was  planted  as  one  ;  it  has  grown  as  one.  The  branch- 
es draw  their  life  and  power  to  grow  from  the  root. 
Whether  the  branches  are  "  thirteen,"  thirty,  or  three 
hundred,  they  have  no  life  which  they  did  not  derive 
from  the  living,  extending  root ;  and  they  cannot  have 
any  other  life.  The  root  and  trunk  do  not  grow  and 
expand  by  the  delegated  permission  of  the  branches. 
There  was  a  root  before  there  were  any  branches.  I 
never  heard  of  a  tree  having  any  other  constitution 
than  its  own  power  and  freedom  to  grow.  I  never 
heard  of  the  branches  of  a  tree  meeting  in  convention, 
and  making  a  solemn  compact  to  provide  themselves  with 
a  root  of  guarded  and  limited  powers,  which  should 
grow  so  far  only  in  one  direction  and  so  far  only  in 
another  direction,  which  should  represent  the  branches. 


NATIONAL    SOVEREIGNTY.  I49 

know  no  other  law  than  the  will  of  the  branches,  and 
that  all  power  which  was  not  expressly  and  by  a  strict 
construction  granted  by  the  branches  to  the  root  was 
reserved  to  and  by  the  branches. 

Many  who  see  with  patriotic  pride  the  glorious  tree 
of  our  nationality  spread  wider  and  wider,  grow  larger 
and  larger,  from  ice  to  palm  and  from  sea  to  sea,  seem 
moved  at  times  with  a  strange  fear  when  they  see  that 
the  root  and  the  trunk  grow  as  well  as  the  branches. 
Of  course  they  must  grow,  and  the  root  and  the  trunk 
must  continue  to  grow  ;  and,  thank  God,  the  root  and 
the  trunk  will  break  all  the  iron  bands  with  which  an 
unpatriotic  fear  tries  to  curb  their  growth.  What  if  all 
the  constitutional  contrivances  to  check  the  growth 
and  expansion  of  the  root  and  trunk  of  the  national  tree 
could  succeed,  while  the  branches  should  be  permitted 
to  grow  from  the  chained  and  stunted  trunk  ?  Would 
not  the  branches  fall  in  time  by  their  own  unsupported 
weight  ?  The  trunk  would  fall  too  ;  and  the  root  would 
be  dragged  from  the  ground  to  wither  and  die,  and  the 
whole  national  tree  would  be  a  monumental  wreck  of 
the  folly  of  man  in  trying  to  improve  and  check  the 
work  of  God. 

A  nation  all  states,  —  a  tree  all  branches  :  each  is 
alike  impossible.  Why  did  you  save  the  precious  tree, 
when  unfilial  hands  tried  to  destroy  it,  if  you  were  not 
willing  it  should  grow  as  strong  as  God  would  permit, 
to  be  the  beauty  and  glory  of  the  world  ?  You  cannot 
have   the  noble,  spreading  branches,  if  you  maim  or 


150  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

check  the  root.  The  consolidation  which  you  fear  and 
resist  is  the  law  of  the  universe,  and  it  will  not  be 
changed  to  accommodate  your  fear,  and  it  will  laugh 
at  your  resistance.  As  long  as  the  tree  lives  it  will 
grow,  its  root  as  well  as  its  branches.  It  is  hard  to 
say  whether  the  folly  is  greater  or  the  patriotism 
smaller  which  would  destroy  the  root  to  save  the 
branches.  Would  you  check  liberty  for  the  sake  of 
liberty,  and,  while  you  rejoice  in  the  branches,  be 
jealous  of  the  root,  without  which  the  branches  could 
not  be  ?  The  highest  liberty  is  the  liberty  to  grow  ; 
and  the  liberty  that  cannot  endure  liberty,  if  its  aims 
arc  right,  is  no  true  liberty,  but  tyranny  in  the  robes 
of  liberty.  Our  national  tree  will  grow  ;  its  roots  will 
strike  deeper  and  deeper,  will  grow  wider  and  wider ; 
its  trunk  will  grow  higher  and  higher,  its  branches 
broader  and  broader ;  and  nothing  that  mortal  man 
can  do  will  check  the  growing  root,  the  growing  trunk, 
and  the  growing  branches ;  and  that  noble  tree  will 
stand  for  ages  in  beneficent  grandeur  long  after  every 
hand  that  has  tried  to  resist  its  growth  has  turned  to 
dust.  Be  content,  and  not  only  be  content,  but  rejoice 
at  the  growth  of  that  wide  and  lofty  tree,  and  remem- 
ber that  you  cannot  desire  or  try  to  curb  its  growth 
without  dishonoring  the  memory  of  the  brave  and  loyal 
men  who  died  to  save  that  noble  tree,  when  all  its 
branches  flamed  with  the  red  glare  of  war,  and  who 
now  sleep  in  peaceful,  glorious  graves  beneath  its  holy 
shade,  while  all  its  branches  wave  in  grateful,  living 
green. 


NATIONAL    SOVEREIGNTY.  151 

Sovereignty,  in  its  essential  principle,  must  be  a 
unit.  There  is  no  such  thing,  there  can  be  no  such 
thing,  as  numerical  sovereignty,  whether  the  number 
be  ten  or  ten  millions,  each  retaining  a  share  of  sov- 
ereignty. There  must  be  unity  of  will  and  of  action, 
even  when  millions  rule  or  act.  In  cither  case,  it 
must  rule  or  be  ruled  as  one.  There  can  be  no  liv- 
ing branches  without  a  living  root.  There  can  be  no 
states,  as  parts  of  a  nation,  without  a  common  centre 
of  unity  and  life,  which  is  not  derived  from  the  states, 
but  from  which  the  states  are  derived. 

There  is  no  plainer  law  of  God  than  this,  that  all 
power  begins  at  the  centre  and  thence  spreads  to  the 
circumference.  The  circumference  cannot  make  the 
centre  its  deputy  and  delegate,  endowed  only  with 
what  it  chooses  to  grant ;  and  this  holds  good  every- 
where, in  all  material,  moral,  civil,  and  spiritual  forces, 
throughout  the  universe  of  God,  alike  in  the  fleeting 
circle  made  by  the  pebble  which  the  child  throws  into 
the  brook  ;  in  the  state,  whether  it  rules  over  a  hundred 
acres  or  a  continent ;  in  the  Church,  whether  its  do- 
main be  the  upper  room  in  Jerusalem  or  the  wide 
world,  until  the  end  of  time  ;  or  in  the  eternal  throne 
of  Jehovah,  the  centre  and  source  of  life  and  power. 

Now,  since  government  exists  independently  of  the 
human  will,  it  cannot  be  the  simple  agent  and  nothing 
more  of  those  who  are  governed.  It  cannot  derive 
special  and  limited  grants  of  authority  from  those  who 
derive  their  own  authority  from  it.     The  centre  must 


152  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

rule  ;  the  circumference  must  obey.  The  very  first 
movement  in  America  towards  anything  Hke  visible 
unity  of  power  came  from  the  central  idea  of  govern- 
ment, itself  existing  independently  of  the  human  will, 
underlying  the  various  colonial  or  provincial  forms,  and 
seeking,  like  a  law  of  unity  endowed  with  conscious 
life,  to  be  expressed  and  embodied  in  a  recognized 
central  authority  of  some  visible  institution.  Hence, 
the  general  government,  the  federal  government,  the 
national  government,  as  we  call  it,  meaning  the  same 
thing,  was  not,  and  could  not  have  been,  created  either 
by  the  Constitution,  or  by  those  who  made  it,  or  by 
those  who  accepted  it ;  for  that  central  authority,  by 
whatever  name  it  may  be  called,  existed  before  the 
Constitution  and  before  the  Revolution.  It  was  the 
beginning  and  the  nucleus  of  power,  not  the  end  and 
the  creature  of  power.  It  was  by  the  strength  of  that 
previously  existing  central  sovereignty,  though  unde- 
veloped, that,  in  the  sight  of  the  world,  the  framers  of 
the  Constitution  themselves  assembled.  They  could 
not  create  their  own  creator,  meaning,  not  an  absolute 
creator,  but  only  as  anything  can  be  a  creator  which 
acts  as  the  agent  of  a  higher  power. 

The  solar  system  is  frequently  cited  as  the  model  of 
our  government.  It  is  a  partial  illustration  only.  I 
cite  it  to  show  but  one  point.  While  the  sun  does 
not  really  create  the  planets,  it  is  very  certain  that 
the  planets  never  met  in  convention  and  agreed  to 
create  the  central  sun,   and  gave  to   the  sun   certain 


NATIONAL    SOVEREIGNTY.  1 53 

limited  powers,  among  which  was  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion, subject,  however,  to  a  strict  construction  ;  and 
the  planets,  while  resolving  and  submitting  to  go  round 
the  sun  in  certain  orbits  marked  out  by  themselves,  in 
order  "  to  establish  a  more  perfect  union  "  among  the 
heavenly  bodies,  reserved  to  themselves  "  or  to  the  peo- 
ple "  inhabiting  them  all  "  the  powers  not  delegated " 
to  the  sun.  Every  one  can  see  that  this  statement  is 
the  very  reverse  of  the  law  of  nature  as  shown  in  the 
solar  system.  It  is  the  power  of  the  sun  himself,  the 
power  given  to  him  by  Almighty  God,  not  the  consent 
of  the  planets  or  the  people  of  the  planets,  which  is 
able  "  to  establish  a  more  perfect  union  "  on  the  starry 
plains  above.  It  is  by  an  inexorable  law  of  the  Infinite 
God,  and  not  by  any  constitution  made  or  accepted  by 
the  planets  or  their  people,  that  they  go  round  the  sun 
in  varying  yet  harmonious  orbits. 

Sovereignty  is  the  soul  of  a  nation,  whether  its  na- 
tionality be,  in  form,  complete  or  incomplete.  The 
various  parts  of  the  nation  can  no  more  divide  the 
living  soul  of  the  nation,  and  each  take  its  share,  than 
the  members  of  the  human  body  can  separate,  each 
claiming  and  taking  its  share  of  the  quivering  brain 
and  beating  heart.  Sovereignty  is  not  a  string  of 
beads,  of  which  one  is  as  good  as  another,  off  or  on  ; 
it  is  a  source  of  electric  life,  which  kindles  where  it 
touches  along  the  whole  line  of  its  power.  Sovereignty 
is  like  the  sun,  which  glorifies  the  top  of  the  mountain 
and  paints  the  flower  at  its  foot,  which  ripens  the 
7* 


154  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

grain,  and  dazzles  the  face  of  the  sea ;  yet,  while  dif- 
fusing itself,  it  retains  itself  in  bright  enduring  unity. 
To  sum  up :  from  the  beginning  of  the  settlement 
of  North  America  there  has  been  a  strong  national 
attraction  of  its  communities,  resisted  strongly  in 
every  case  by  many,  yet  invincible,  because  depend- 
ing upon  a  law  of  civil  government  beyond  and  above 
the  control  of  man.  Every  advance  towards  a  true 
and  plain  nationality  has  been  vehemently  protested 
against  ;  but  it  has  gone  on,  nevertheless,  like  the 
calm  yet  unyielding  march  of  the  sun  ;  and  it  will 
continue  to  go  on  until  the  goal  is  reached,  and  fed- 
eralism shall  be,  as  it  ought  to  be,  completely  and 
forever  annihilated.  When  I  see  this  intense  strug- 
gling of  gigantic  forces  for  unity,  —  irrepressible 
against  all  endeavors  to  repress  it,  irresistible  against 
all  resistance,  invincible  against  all  attempts  to  con- 
quer it,  —  and  when  I  consider  to  what  a  degree  a 
vast  domain  has  obeyed  this  mighty  impulse,  I  feel 
justified  in  answering  to  my  question,  Arc  the  United 
States  a  nation  .-'  Yes. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

ARE    THE    UNITED    STATES    A    NATION  ? 

Are  the  United  States  a  nation  ?  No.  I  retract 
nothing  said  above  in  answering  yes  to  the  same 
question.  Most  truly  do  I  believe  that  the  United 
States  are  a  nation  ;  but  I  deny  that  they  arc  a 
nation  on  the  ground  on  which  our  nationality  is 
generally  claimed.  The  usual  political  belief  of  my 
countrymen  is,  that  the  Constitution  makes  us  a  na- 
tion. I  deny  that  the  Constitution  could  make  us  a 
nation,  even  if  it  were  a  national  Constitution  ;  and 
I  deny  that  the  government,  whose  powers  are  de- 
fined by  the  Constitution,  is  a  national  government. 
I  have,  then,  to  consider  myself  as  standing  on  the 
same  level  with  the  Constitution,  with  no  right  to 
look  beyond  it,  except  to  its  history,  its  interpretation 
and  illustration.  I  must  regard  the  States  each  as 
actually  independent,  each  as  actually  sovereign,  be- 
fore the  Constitution  was  formed,  and  as  surrendering 
each  a  part  of  its  sovereignty  and  retaining  the  rest 
when  the  Constitution  was  made.  I  believe  nothing 
of  the  kind.  I  believe  that  no  such  sovereignty  ex- 
isted ;    but   I   have  tried   to    put    the    question  fairly ; 


156  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

and,  as  it  is  put,  I  deny  that  tlie  Constitution  makes 
us  a  nation. 

Sovereignty  cannot  be  divided  between  tlie  compo- 
nent parts  of  a  nation.  Tliere  is  but  one  sovereignty 
in  a  commonwealth,  and  that  is  the  sovereignty  of  the 
commonwealth  itself.  A  citizen  must  regard  his  loy- 
alty to  God  as  above  anything  and  everything  else  ; 
but  if  he  professes  loyalty  to  a  political  state,  as  he 
not  only  may  but  is  bound  to  do,  it  must  be  a  full 
and  entire  loyalty  in  all  that  concerns  his  civil  life. 
Othervv'ise,  it  is  no  true  loyalty  at  all.  If  he  sa}'s,  on 
such  and  such  points,  naming  them,  as  regards  his 
condition  as  a  citizen,  he  will  obey  the  government 
of  his  country,  and  on  other  points,  which  affect  neither 
his  faith  nor  his  conscience  as  an  immortal  being,  but 
simply  his  relations  to  the  state,  he  will  not  obey,  but 
will  reserve  his  obedience  ;  and,  besides,  affirms  that 
when  and  where  he  obeys  he  does  so  on  the  ground 
that  he  has  a  right  to  set  his  own  bounds  to  his  obe- 
dience,—  or,  in  other  words,  if  he  holds  that  he  gives 
up  to  the  state  a  part  of  his  individual  sovereignty, 
and  keeps  the  remainder  to  himself  and  for  himself, — 
whatever  else  such  a  man  may  be  called,  he  is  not  a 
citizen  of  a  state  ;  and  a  state  which  would  permit  such 
citizenship  would  not  deserve  to  be  called  a  state.  No 
community,  civilized  or  uncivilized,  would  regard  such 
a  man  as  a  true  member.  It  might  happen  that  he 
reserved  to  himself  exactly  those  obligations  as  a  citi- 
zen on  which  the  very  existence    of  the    community 


ARE    THE    UNITED    STATES    A    NATION?  1 5/ 

might  depend.  The  case  would  be  worse  if  a  large 
number  of  people,  calling  themselves  citizens,  and 
worse  yet,  if  all  should  meet  together  and  promise 
to  support  a  common  government  to  a  certain  degree, 
no  more  and  no  less.  No  nation  would  recognize  such 
an  act  or  such  citizens.  Of  course,  in  all  countries  and 
always,  individuals  have  individual  rights  and  liberties 
which  do  not  concern  the  government.  I  have  not 
been  speaking  of  these,  but  of  those  common  rights 
and  duties  which  belong  to  men  in  civil  communities. 
Of  these,  no  man  can,  of  his  own  will,  reserve  a  part 
and  yield  a  part,  and  yet  be  a  true  citizen  ;  and  no 
nation  can  permit  such  partial  loyalty  and  be  a  true 
nation. 

Now,  exactly  this  absurdity,  so  plain  in  the  case  of 
one  individual  or  more,  is  exactly  the  theory  of  the 
relation  of  our  government  and  the  States  which  com- 
pose it.  Such  obedience  of  such  a  man  or  of  such  a 
state  is  not  true  obedience  to  national  authority  ;  and 
a  government  which  permits  such  a  half-way  covenant 
of  civil  duty  is  not  a  national  government.  A  com- 
munity of  individuals  such  as  I  have  described,  yield- 
ing some  rights  and  reserving  others,  when  both  those 
yielded  and  those  reserved  belong  to  the  same  kind  of 
rights,  that  is,  rights  belonging  intrinsically  to  the 
civil  condition,  would  be  nothing  but  a  limited  partner- 
ship. It  is  difficult  to  see  in  what  way  the  character 
of  the  association  is  changed  by  substituting  states  for 
individuals. 


158  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

But,  again,  suppose  a  man  a  citizen  of  one  of  the 
States  of  the  United  States,  —  and  this  roundabout 
way  is  the  only  legal  and  accurate  way  of  describing 
the  individual  generally  known  as  an  American  citizen  ; 
for  our  country,  while  claiming  to  be  a  nation,  has  no 
citizens  of  her  own,  but  simply  adopts  those  of  the 
States,  —  but  suppose  this  citizen  of  one  of  the  States 
of  the  United  States,  commonly,  though  inaccurately, 
known  as  an  American  citizen,  makes  no  claim  of  re- 
serving any  civil  sovereignty  to  himself,  but  readily 
concedes  the  force  of  his  obligations  as  a  citizen.  He 
is  compelled,  then,  to  render  two  allegiances  ;  he  can- 
hot  make  his  choice  ;  he  is  bound  in  theory  by  both, — 
one  to  his  State,  the  other  to  what  is  called  his  Country. 
Now,  as  civil  sovereignty  cannot  be  divided,  neither  can 
civil  allegiance  be  divided.  The  very  idea  of  national 
authority  is,  that  it  is  one  ;  and  if  one,  it  can  permit  no 
division  of  its  claim  to  civil  loyalty. 

According  to  the  Constitution,  among  us  two  sov- 
ereignties claim  a  man's  allegiance,  the  State  and  the 
general  government.  If  the  State  alone  claimed  his 
allegiance,  the  State,  however  small,  would  be  to  him 
a  nation,  and  he  could  render  to  it  national  allegiance  ; 
or  if  the  general  government  alone  claimed  his  alle- 
giance, then  the  general  government  would  be  to  him  a 
national  government.  But  this  is  not  the  case.  Both 
claim  him.  Both  cannot  be  sovereign.  Whichever  is 
sovereign  to  this  man  is  the  nation  to  which  he  belongs; 
but  the  claims  of  each  destroy  the  claims  of  both.     A 


ARE    THE    UNITED    STATES    A    NATION?  1 59 

man  can  have  but  one  country  ;  and  if  two  claim  him, 
with  apparently  equal  reason,  he  belongs  to  neither, 
and  is  "  a  man  without  a  country."  If  one  only  claimed 
him,  the  right  would  be  plain,  and  his  duty  would  be 
plain.  In  many  cases  the  demands  of  the  two  may  not 
clash  ;  but  they  may :  whether  they  do  or  not,  the  man 
has  two  masters,  either  of  whom,  without  the  other, 
would  be  to  him  a  nation,  with  a  right  to  command  him  ; 
but  neither  is  a  nation,  according  to  the  Constitution, 
because  each  cannot  be. 

Is  the  man,  then,  free  to  do  what  he  likes.'*  By  no 
means.  Law  is  binding  by  its  own  right  derived  from 
God,  whether  there  is  any  human  authority  with  full 
power  to  administer  it  or  not ;  and  if  there  is  no  regular 
government  which  a  man  can  own,  he  must  make  the 
best  of  it,  and  obey  the  irregular  one,  if  that  alone 
exists,  hoping  and  praying  for  a  better  one,  making  a 
loyal  intention  to  obey  serve  in  the  place  of  a  true 
obedience,  which  can  be  really  rendered  only  when 
there  is  a  true  right  to  command. 

A  man,  placed  as  I  have  described,  will  almost  of 
necessity  regard  his  State  as  his  country,  for  it  is  nearest 
to  him,  and  is  more  directly  concerned  with  his  daily 
life  and  his  home.  It  is  no  wonder  that  State  pride  has 
been  so  deep,  so  great,  and  so  disastrous,  since,  accord- 
ing to  the  Constitution,  one  great  dominion,  clearly 
known  and  felt,  and  having  the  right  to  be  so  known 
and  felt,  as  alone  sovereign  in  every  part  of  the  land, 
does  not  exist  ;  for  an  agent  whom  all  the  States  —  or 


l60  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

the  people  of  all  the  States,  if  you  choose,  though  it 
makes  no  difference  in  the  argument  —  agree  to  appoint 
to  attend  to  certain  specified  affairs  for  them  in  specified 
ways,  they  agreeing  to  do  certain  things  which  this 
agent,  acting  not  by  any  authority  of  his  own,  but  by 
theirs,  may  require  them  to  do,  is  nothing  but  an 
agent,  by  whatever  name  he  may  be  called.  These 
words  describe  our  form  of  rule,  as  fixed  by  the  Con- 
stitution, and  they  are  fatal  to  its  claim  to  establish  a 
national  government.  A  national  government  must 
have  certain  rights,  not  granted  to  it,  but  as  original, 
inherent,  and  inalienable  as  the  rights  of  the  people 
themselves  "  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness." A  general  agency,  acting  by  command  of  those 
whom  it  professes  to  command,  cannot  be  a  national 
government,  having  an  organic,  intrinsic,  and  original 
right  to  command,  underived  from  those  whom  it  com- 
mands. 

It  is  an  overturn  of  responsibility  for  those  ruled  to 
grant  powers  to  rulers,  even  where  the  ruled  and  the 
rulers  change  places,  as  they  do  among  us  ;  for  a  man 
who  has  authority  to  rule  has  prerogatives,  by  virtue 
of  that  authority,  which  leave  him  instantly  when,  at 
the  expiration  of  his  term  of  office,  he  becomes  again 
one  of  the  ruled  ;  yet  this  concession  of  power  is  not 
of  necessity  fatal  to  the  national  character  of  a  govern- 
ment, for  any  such  concession  may  be  allowed  by  suffer- 
ance, being  understood  as  a  mutual  agreement  between 
rulers  and  the  ruled,  provided  that  the  authority  of 


ARE    THE    UNITED    STATES    A    NATION  ?  l6l 

what  is  called  the  general  government  really  extends 
throughout  the  country,  that  is,  if  every  officer  in  the 
land,  concerned  in  its  civil  administration,  of  whatever 
degree,  draws  his  right  to  be  such  an  officer  directly 
from  the  general  government,  or  immediately  through 
officers  appointed  by  the  general  government,  —  if,  for 
instance,  the  governors  of  the  States  receive,  as  they 
ought  only  to  receive,  and  as,  in  any  proper  theory  of  a 
nation,  they  could  only  receive,  their  authority  to  act 
as  governors  from  the  general  government. 

The  people  of  each  State  might  continue  to  choose 
their  governors,  as  they  now  do,  if  it  were  deemed  best, 
provided  that  each  governor,  as  soon  as  chosen,  received 
his  commission  to  act  as  governor  from  the  central 
authority  of  the  government.  If  what  is  sometimes 
called  the  national  government — though  it  is  not  one,, 
and  has  no  right  or  claim  to  be  so  called,  by  the  letter 
or  spirit  of  the  Constitution  —  had  this  right  of  juris- 
diction, the  liberty  of  choice  might  well  enough  be  left 
where  it  is  ;  but  the  governor  of  each  State  is  chosen 
by  the  people  of  each  State,  and  his  own  authority  to 
act  comes  from  the  people  of  the  State  which  chose 
him.  He  is  not  and  does  not  claim  to  be  a  national 
officer ;  on  the  contrary,  he  expressly  claims,  and  takes 
a  special  pride  in  claiming,  not  to  be  a  national  officer, 
and  protests,  or  others  do  for  him,  against  being  so  re- 
garded. His  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  is  never  understood  to  make  him  a 
national  officer  ;  and  it  does  not  so  make  him,  since  he 

K 


1 62  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

is  not  recognized  by  the  Constitution  as  an  officer  of 
the  nation,  but  only  of  the  State. 

A  nation  which  neither  chooses,  nor  authorizes, 
however  chosen,  all  who  administer  its  civil  affairs 
throughout  its  extent,  is  not  a  nation  in  any  sense  that 
plain,  unsophisticated  people  can  understand,  so  far  as 
that  supposed  nationality  depends  upon  a  constitution 
which  permits  any  man  to  serve  any  part  of  his  coun- 
try without  the  authority  of  his  whole  country,  as  rep- 
resented by  its  central  government.  Whatever  nation- 
ality, if  any,  might  possibly  be  affirmed  of  the  Consti- 
tution, as  it  originally  stood,  is  completely  taken  away 
by  the  ninth  and  tenth  amendments  to  the  Constitu- 
tion. Those  amendments  take  away  from  the  Consti- 
tution every  jDossible  trace  or  shadow  of  nationality. 
Nations,  as  nations,  and  they  only,  can  retain  rights, 
and  by  nations  as  nations  and  by  them  only  can 
powers  be  reserved.  The  power  that  retains  national 
rights  is  superior  to  the  nation,  —  hence  there  is  no 
nationality.  ^  The  authority  which  reserves  national 
powers  is  superior  to  the  nation,  —  hence  there  is  no 
nationality. 

I  cite  the  following  sentences  from  the  letter  of 
James  Madison  to  Edward  Everett,  as  published  in 
the  North  American  Review,  August,  1830,  and 
quoted  by  Thomas  H.  Benton  in  his  defence  of  Madi- 
son against  the  charge  of  advocating  nullification:  — 

"  Nor  is  the  government  of  the  United  States,  cre- 
ated by   the   Constitution,  less    a  government,   in   the 


ARE    THE    UNITED    STATES    A    NATION  ?  163 

strict  sense  of  the  term,  within  the  sphere  of  its  pow- 
ers, than  the  governments  created  by  the  constitutions 
of  the  States  are,  within  their  several  spheres.  It  is, 
like  them,  organized  into  legislative,  executive,  and 
judiciary  departments.  It  operates,  like  them,  directly 
on  persons  and  things.  And,  like  them,  it  has  at  com- 
mand a  physical  force  for  executing  the  powers  com- 
mitted to  it. 

"  Between  these  different  constitutional  governments, 
the  one  operating  in  all  the  States,  the  others  oper- 
ating separately  in  each,  with  the  aggregate  powers 
of  government  divided  between  them,  it  could  not 
escape  attention,  that  controversies  could  arise  con- 
cerning the  boundaries  of  jurisdiction." 

It  would  not  be  possible  for  me  to  use  language 
more  vividly  illustrating  my  position  that,  according 
to  the  Constitution,  the  United  States  are  not  a  na- 
tion, than  the  plain,  direct  words  of  James  Madison. 
If  "the  government  of  the  United  States"  is  no  less 
a  government  than  "the  governments  created  by  the 
constitutions  of  the  States,"  then  it  is  no  more  a 
government  than  they  are.  It  is  organized  like  them  ; 
they  are  organized  like  it.  There  is  a  complete  invo- 
lution of  civil  authority,  wheels  within  wheels  of  sov- 
ereignty and  allegiance.  I  deny  that  this  involution, 
whatever  else  it  may  be  or  do,  can  be  or  accord  wdth 
a  national  government.  If  our  State  governments, 
"organized  into  legislative,  executive,  and  judiciary 
departments,"   however    cumbersome   such   machinery 


164  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

must  be,  derived  their  legislative,  executive,  and  judi- 
cial sanction  from  the  central  authority,  our  country 
would  be,  I  admit,  a  nation,  according  to  the  Consti- 
tution ;  but  this  is  not  the  condition  of  things.  It  is 
the  very  reverse  of  the  condition.  The  general  gov- 
ernment is  the  deputy  of  the  States ;  the  States  are 
the  original  authority.  "  Aggregate  powers  of  govern- 
ment divided  between "  two  civil  authorities,  each 
claiming  to  be  sovereign  in  its  own  sphere,  and  one, 
the  local,  not  the  general  one,  claiming  besides  to 
have  an  inexhaustible  fountain  of  sovereignty  left, — 
such  powers  cannot  make  or  found  a  nation. 

A  human  body  can  have  but  one  heart ;  a  nation 
can  have  but  one  central  spring  of  life,  authority,  and 
power.  Even  the  executive  head  depends  upon  the 
ever-beating,  ever-sustaining  heart  of  essential  nation- 
ality for  its  power  to  direct  and  guide  the  life  which 
it  represents. 

Read  the  last  paragraph  above  quoted  from  Mr. 
Madison's  letter,  in  the  light  of  our  civil  war.  It  reads 
like  a  prophecy  of  death  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
brave  men.  Hear  it :  it  sounds  like  a  chorus  of 
lamentation  and  woe  from  millions  of  voices  over  myr- 
iads of  graves.  Look  at  it  :  every  word  burns  like 
a  blazing  star,  scorching  harvest-fields  and  blasting 
hearts  and  homes.  "  Controversies  "  terrible  indeed, 
red  with  the  carnage,  flashing  with  the  lightning,  and 
rolling  with  the  thunder  of  war,  hav'e  proved,  one 
would   think,  enough  as  to  the  character  of  "  consti- 


ARE    THE    UNITED    STATES    A    NATION  ?  l6$ 

tutional  governments"  having  "the  aggregate  powers 
of  government  divided  between  them"  ;  but  the  proof 
seems  to  have  made  but  a  sHght  and  transient  im- 
pression. No  monster  in  mythology,  romance,  or  his- 
tory has  died  so  hard  as  State  sovereignty  is  dying, 
singing  hke  a  siren  to  allure  and  destroy,  and  smiling, 
entrancing  with  satanic  illusion,  to  the  last  gasp  of  his 
hot,  infernal  breath. 

My  countrymen  !  through  how  many  red  seas  of 
war  do  you  mean  or  desire  to  go,  before  you  will  own, 
by  a  plain,  organic  law,  a  nationality  which  will  admit 
no  possible  conflict  of  civil  jurisdiction? 

Mr.  Madison,  as  the  author  of  the  resolutions  of  '98, 
triumphantly  vindicated  himself  and  the  resolutions 
from  any  intention  to  declare  or  authorize  the  doc- 
trines of  nullification  and  secession.  There  never 
lived  in  any  country,  in  any  age,  a  truer,  purer  pa- 
triot than  James  Madison.  While  saying  this  with 
all  my  heart,  I  say  also  that  the  doctrines  of  nullifica- 
tion and  secession  are  direct,  logical  consequences  of 
the  resolutions  of  '98.  Those  resolutions  never  would 
have  seen  the  light  of  day,  had  Madison  and  other 
eminent  Virginians  foreseen  what  opinions  and  events 
would  grow  out  of  those  resolutions.  This  is  not  all. 
The  resolutions  of  '98,  if  not  in  strict  accordance  with 
one  theory  of  the  Constitution,  are  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  another  theory  of  the  Constitution,  held 
by  some  who  aided  to  form  the  Constitution,  by  others 
who  aided  to  secure  its  adoption,  by  others  who  have 


l66  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

upheld  and  administered  it,  and  by  nearly  as  many 
people,  if  not  quite,  as  many,  at  this  moment,  as  main- 
tain the  other  theory.  It  is  a  strange  nationality 
whose  charter  allows  the  very  nationality  which  some 
say  that  it  creates  to  be  an  open  question,  and  a  ques- 
tion as  open  now  as  ever.  If  the  Constitution  makes 
us  a  nation,  it  requires  to  be  explained  why  half  the 
people,  without  reference  to  degrees  of  latitude  or  lon- 
gitude, have  denied  that  it  does  from  the  first,  and 
deny  it  now. 

I  am  greatly  amazed  by  the  position  of  those  who 
seek  to  defend  the  Constitution  by  vindicating  the  con- 
stitutional character  of  the  resolutions  of  '98.  The 
stronger  they  make  the  argument  for  the  resolutions, 
the  weaker  they  make  it  for  the  Constitution.  What- 
ever danger  there  may  be  in  this  assertion  comes  from 
its  unimpeachable  truth.  I  maintain  that  the  resolu- 
tions of  '98,  as  meant  by  Madison  and  the  Legislature 
of  Virginia,  are  constitutional,  but  I  do  not  draw  from 
this  fact  the  conclusion  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  is  a  national  charter.  I  draw  just  the 
opposite  conclusion,  and  contend  that  it  is  the  only 
logical  and  direct  conclusion.  I  allow  on  one  side, 
and  claim  on  the  other,  that  the  Virginia  resolutions 
are  not  in  harmony  with  a  true  nationality  ;  but  that 
is  not  the  fault  of  the  resolutions.  I  rebuke  plainly 
and  severely  those  who  will  not  or  who  dare  not  fol- 
low up  the  dangers  of  the  resolutions  of  '98  to  their 
fountain-head,  the  Federal  Constitution  of  the  United 


ARE    THE    UNITED    STATES    A    NATION  ?  167 

States.  No  one  holds  that  nullification  and  secession 
find  any  express  guaranty  in  the  Constitution.  I  am 
not  aware  that  Calhoun  or  Hayne  ever  went  so  far 
as  that  ;  but  nullification  and  secession  are  logical 
developments  from  those  reserved  rights  and  State 
sovereignty  which  the  Constitution  owns  and  sanc- 
tions. It  is  as  unfair  to  denounce  the  Virginia  reso- 
lutions for  their  tendency  to  disunion,  while  upholding 
the  Constitution  as  a  national  charter,  as  it  would  be 
to  hang  or  shoot  a  colonel  for  obeying  the  orders  of 
his  general.  The  Constitution  is  a  federal  Constitu- 
tion, and  cannot  without  historical  violence  be  called 
a  national  Constitution.  National  jurisdiction  is  never 
doubtful.  Federal  jurisdiction  is  always  doubtful. 
Look  at  European  history  for  ages.  It  is  red  and 
fiery  with  proofs.  Doubts  are  the  seeds  of  denials  ; 
and  denials  are  the  seeds  of  anarchy,  convulsion,  and 
ruin,  ever  have  been,  and  ever  will  be. 

The  very  name  of  our  country  is  not  in  keeping 
with  any  idea  of  nationality.  The  title  United  States 
of  America  is  proper  for  a  league  of  sovereign  States, 
and  even  for  a  federal  Union,  but  not  for  a  united 
sovereign  nation.  The  name  of  our  country  conveys 
to  the  mind  no  image  whatever  of  one  great  domin- 
ion being,  or  claiming  to  be,  a  power  in  the  world, 
but  confuses  and  distracts  like  looking  at  the  pris- 
matic colors,  that  are  useless  except  for  scientific  curi- 
osity, but  which,  when  duly  blended,  make  one  clear, 
genial,  reviving  light,  the  joy  of  earth  and  the  glory 


1 68  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

of  heaven.  Our  country  is  a  political  prism,  disturb- 
ing the  vision  of  all  men  with  its  broken  radiance  of 
green,  yellow,  red,  and  the  rest,  when  it  ought  to  be 
a  sun  of  clear,  inspiring,  undivided  light,  cheering 
like  a  benediction  all  the  world. 

Are  the  United  States  a  nation  .-*  Yes,  if  we  regard 
their  historical  beginning  and  growth,  independently 
of  the  Articles  of  Confederation  and  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution. In  this  view,  they  are  a  nation,  and  can- 
not help  being  one.  They  are  a  nation,  whether  the 
people  will  it  or  not,  for  they  obey,  and  cannot  help 
obeying,  the  great,  primal  law  of  political  gravitation, 
which  is  as  inexorable  as  the  law  of  gravitation  in  the 
material  universe.  Are  the  United  States  a  nation  ? 
No,  if  we  regard  alone  the  Articles  of  Confederation 
and  the  Federal  Constitution  as  founding,  either  or 
both,  the  title  of  nationality.  The  Articles  of  Confed- 
eration and  the  Federal  Constitution,  instead  of  rec- 
ognizing and  developing  American  nationality,  have 
really  retarded  and  defeated  it,  as  far  as  the  power 
of  man  could  do  it  ;  and  that  was  in  many  minds 
the  very  object  to  be  desired.  That  object,  within 
the  limit  of  free  will  and  human  power,  has  been  ful- 
filled. 

Our  essential  nationality,  which  is  independent  of  all 
written  forms  or  constitutions,  which  began  before  them, 
lives  through  them,  and  will  survive  them  all,  is  in  plain 
and  direct  contradiction  to  that  so-called  nationality 
which  attempts  to  resist  the  primal  laws  of  human  so- 


ARE    THE    UNITED    STATES    A    NATION  ?  1 69 

ciety  and  government ;  which  treats  civil  authority  as  a 
concession,  and  the  right  to  rule  as  a  grant  ;  which 
makes  the  branches  of  the  tree  create  the  root,  and 
makes  the  sun  in  the  sky  out  of  a  contribution  from  the 
sovereignty  of  the  planets,  —  the  planets  keeping  the 
rest  for  their  own  use. 

There  is  one  way,  and  but  one,  by  which  the  inherent 
nationality  of  our  country  and  her  constitutional  nation- 
ality can  be  made  harmonious  ;  and  that  is  by  a  national 
constitution,  which  shall  equally  recognize  the  organic, 
pervading,  indestructible  laws  of  civil  government,  which 
are  independent  of  the  will  and  power  of  man,  and  the 
rights  and  duties  of  man  as  a  citizen,  which  are  alike 
independent  of  the  will  and  power  of  man.  Man  has 
no  rights  of  any  kind  which  he  did  not  derive  from  God. 
This  sublime  truth  is  recognized  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  ;  and  I  believe  and  maintain  that  in 
urging  and  demanding  for  my  country  a  national  gov- 
ernment and  a  national  constitution,  in  order  that  our 
essential  and  our  constitutional  nationality  may  be  in 
complete  and  triumphant  agreement,  I  am  acting  in 
strict  harmony  and  compliance  with  the  historical  de- 
velopment of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
with  its  recognition  of  eternal  truth.  In  saying  this,  I 
am  not  contradicting  what  I  have  intimated  before,  that 
the  corner-stone  of  North  American  nationality  was 
laid  long  before  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
written  or  dreamed 'of;  long  before  a  European  foot 
trod  on  Plymouth  Rock  ;  long  before  a  single  tree  fell 


I/O  THE    AMERICAN    STATE. 

in  Jamestown  by  the  stroke  of  a  European  axe.  But 
the  day  of  the  Declaration  is  hallowed  by  so  many  in- 
spiring memories,  that  it  may  well  take  its  place  as,  in 
a  certain  sense,  our  national  beginning  ;  yet  I  desire 
my  countrymen  to  consider,  for  it  is  not  enough  con- 
sidered, that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  recognized 
not  only  the  rights  of  man  but  the  rights  of  government. 
That  very  Congress,  whose  members  signed  their  im- 
mortal names  to  that  paper,  at  once  began  to  rule  the 
thirteen  Colonies  as  one  independent  nation  ;  for  the 
"free  and  independent  States"  were  then  understood 
to  form  one  resisting  dominion,  one  dominion  ruled  and 
ruling  ;  such  they  were,  such  they  were  meant  to  be, 
such  they  were  owned  to  be  by  the  very  fact  of  the 
Continental  Congress.  I  maintain,  in  this  view,  that 
the  Continental  Congress  of  1776  was  a  more  national 
assembly  than  the  Federal  Congress  of  1875  ;  for  the 
former  was  less  limited  and  controlled  by  set  rules, 
forms,  and  reservations  contradictory  and  intended  to 
be  contradictory  to  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  nation- 
ality. 

To  conclude,  I  claim  again  that,  in  demanding  a 
national  government  and  a  national  constitution,  I  am 
acting  in  strict  harmony  with  the  exalted  and  exalting 
"  spirit  of  '76."  The  "  spirit  of  '76  "  was  not  only  the 
spirit  of  liberty,  but  also  the  spirit  of  nationality. 
Only  by  hailing,  holding,  and  developing  both  can  we 
be  really  true  to  the  Day  and  the  Declaration.  The 
"spirit  of  1776"  was  the  spirit  of  national  advance- 


ARE    THE    UNITED    STATES    A    NATION?  I7I 

mcnt,  development,  and  growth.  Unless  the  spirit  of 
1876  shall  be  equally  the  spirit  of  advancement,  devel- 
opment, and  growth,  it  will  not  be  grateful  or  true  to  the 
"spirit  of  1776."  The  spirit  of  liberty  is  the  spirit  of 
growth  ;  and  if  it  is  not  true  to  the  days  as  they  come, 
it  cannot  be  true  to  the  days  that  are  gone.  The  in- 
spiring past,  no  less  clearly  than  the  striving  present, 
cries  ever  and  aloud,  Onward  ! 


THE    END. 


Cambridge  :  Electrotyiied  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  and  Company. 


